Treachery and Trust
by SpaceDreamer
Summary: SWTOR: Imperial agent Liadan has her ideas of love and trust challenged when she unexpectedly finds herself falling for her companion Vector Hyllus. Rated "M" for some adult scenes. Spoilers through Act III. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

Liadan Thornbriar, otherwise known as Imperial agent Cipher Nine, ended the holocall and turned to consider her new operative. Until a few moments ago, Vector Hyllus had been an Imperial diplomat to the planet Alderaan. Now he had been reassigned to her as a covert assault agent. Neither of their superiors had involved them in the discussion, as was typical, and the transfer was immediate. Liadan had been left with more questions than answers.

Liadan stood on the grounds of House Cortess, which were eerily silent now after the chaos of the brief battle earlier. House Cortess was in disgrace, and bodies both human and alien littered the grounds. The traitor had been eliminated. The operation had been a success.

Vector had his back to her, his hands clasped behind his back, and appeared to be gazing past the gates of House Cortess at the white-capped mountains in the distance. He had overheard the beginning of the holocall, but had stepped away to give her privacy.

Liadan had only known Vector a few days, but she had already been forced to revise her opinion of him several times. At this point, she was ready to throw out everything she had initially thought and start over. Being a good judge of people and sizing up unpredictable situations was part of her job description, so this changing reassessment unnerved her.

She had been briefed before meeting him, but what she had been told to expect was barely sufficient to prepare her for what she had found. Alderaan was a planet of bickering human aristocratic houses, each just as likely to backstab you as to invite you to tea. Liadan had initially been expecting an equally stuffy diplomat, middle-aged and pompous. Then she was told that Vector had been living with the Killiks, a native, non-humanoid species. The Killiks were not well loved and Vector's loyalty was suspect.

No matter that the Killiks were one of the oldest species in the galaxy and had a stronger claim to the planet than the humans. They were the most alien of aliens, with large insectoid bodies and too many legs. Most of the time, the only thing said about them was how they brainwashed their captives, turning them into mindless drones psychically connected to the species' communal hive mind. These unfortunates were called "Joiners" and they were spoken of with horror, their fate often considered worse than death.

Vector, it turned out, was a human Joiner.

He was also young – attractive even, appeared fully in charge of his intellect, and had surprised her by occasionally being expectedly witty. He wasn't however, by any stretch of the imagination, normal.

_For once_, Liadan thought, _I have met someone in the Imperial ranks who is more alien than I am_. She went and stood at the top of the steps next to him.

"So, you are aware of the news? Welcome to my crew."

"Thank you Agent. We hope we can live up to your expectations." All Joiners, Liadan had discovered, spoke of themselves in the plural. Liadan wasn't sure sometimes if she was talking to Vector himself or the entire hive of Killiks. It took some getting used to.

If one didn't know better, Vector could have passed for an Alderaanian noble – finely dressed, perfectly poised, ever polite. But as soon as he looked at you, the illusion ended. He had Joiner eyes; solid black pools with no iris to be found. Liadan had not realized how much she relied on the cues she could read in people's eyes until she met Vector. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, and that bothered her.

"I spoke well of you to Intelligence," she told him. "After today, there should be no doubt as to your loyalty." Liadan shot him a look. "What you did today could not have been easy for you. But you did the right thing."

"We appreciate your faith in us," Vector said. "We could not let the rest of the hive move against the Empire. We still hope for a Killik-Imperial alliance someday."

Liadan nodded. The Killiks had helped expose House Cortess, but in return they wanted to take over the Cortess family lands and buildings for a new hive – and convert the remaining family members into Joiners. Liadan had adamantly refused. House Cortess had already been punished, and the traitor was dead. Liadan wanted to set an example that the Empire could be merciful to those who turned over the guilty. Giving House Cortess to the Killiks would have horrified the rest of Alderaan's noble houses and not made the Empire look good.

The Killiks, however, had not accepted her refusal. There, in the throne room, the group of Killiks that had moments earlier helped her storm the house had turned their weapons on her. When she saw Vector take his staff in hand as well, she thought that she was about to die. She was sorely outnumbered.

Instead Vector had stood at her side, and had fought his own hive. He had dispatched the Killik warriors in that room with shocking efficiency, using combat maneuvers Liadan had never seen. She had noticed his electrostaff earlier of course - it was a primitive-looking weapon that appeared of Killik make -but had assumed it to be ceremonial rather than functional. Once again she had been proven wrong. In the aftermath of the fight she was considerably shaken. And thankful to be alive.

Vector did not seem bothered by the recent battle. Was there anything that unruffled him? He displayed a perpetual calmness that was slightly uncanny. Sometimes, just when she thought he was far off in his head, he would say something surprisingly insightful, proving that he had been paying attention all along. This thoughtfulness carried over into other mannerisms as well. Vector applied a kind of deliberate care to each word he spoke, giving his speech a strange, measured cadence that was almost mesmerizing.

No, Vector was not the mindless drone as Liadan had been led to believe. Watching him though was like trying to make out a reflection in the water. If she searched hard enough, she suspected that there was indeed a human still there, somewhere, buried deep behind the Joiner facade.

oo0oo

Intelligence wasted no time. Almost immediately, Liadan and Vector were sent on a mission of critical importance. Liadan didn't like being forced to rely on a new and untested agent, but the mission was a sensitive one, requiring a delicate touch. Her superior, Watcher Two, had specifically asked her not to bring Kaliyo, her other partner.

It ended up being one of the hardest missions Liadan had attempted to date, and the mere fact that Vector made it out alive with her was enough to leave her considerably impressed. He had done more than just survive, even. Had had performed admirably under pressure, in conditions that would have broken other agents. Liadan had been forced to make some difficult decisions, ones that could have cost them their lives. Yet Vector had never questioned her judgment, had followed her instructions to the letter, and had displayed an unshakable bravery throughout. He had fought well, and together they kept each other alive. Liadan was pleased and decided that Vector made a good addition to her crew.

When it was all over, they were all put on one month's leave. Liadan told Kaliyo and Vector that they were free to spend that time as they wished, as long as they stayed in Dromund Kaas and agreed to meet once a week to check in. Liadan intended to keep these meetings casual, with the one rule that no one was allowed to discuss business. She enjoyed the rare chance to get to see her crew as people once in a while, and not as agents.

The first time, they met at a cantina. It became quickly obvious that Kaliyo and Vector were like oil and water. Kaliyo did not try to disguise her discomfort with Vector. Vector, thankfully, tolerated her disparaging comments with nearly endless patience. He only rarely bit back with a retort and when he did, Kaliyo was usually left muttering at him in apparent incomprehension. Liadan decided that from now on she would meet with them separately.

Finally Kaliyo announced that she was going to "quit this joint" and go find something more entertaining. For Kaliyo that meant prowling a rougher sort of establishment, where she was just as likely to get in a rip-roaring fight with some of the men there as she was to bed them. (And sometimes she even managed to do with both.) Liadan was left alone with Vector.

Liadan started to ask him a few questions about himself – the usual non-intrusive conversational topics – but he deftly maneuvered her away from all that and next thing she knew, she was telling him about herself instead. Liadan was used to dealing with suave talkers and people who knew how to subtly wring information out of you – and Vector was not one of those. He caught her off guard instead with a brutal honesty that disregarded all social rules, and he proved stubbornly hard to deflect. She had already seen him show an intellectual interest in virtually everything around him, and he turned that probing curiosity on her like someone studying her ways and culture for the very first time. He was intently interested in how she managed to live the life of an agent without any visible social network around her. Did she have siblings, a family, a husband? Did she have someone to come home to after a mission? Being part of the hive mind, he explained, one was never truly alone. He seemed to find her solitary life difficult to comprehend.

Liadan was taken back at first. Agents would normally never reveal personal details about themselves and it was taboo to ask. Even her name was something private; her identity as Cipher Nine was all that mattered. But Vector's sincere desire to _know_ and _understand_ had an almost childlike innocence to it. Among Killiks, Liadan learned, the concept of privacy did not exist. _Sharing your mind with a multitude of others would do that you, I guess,_ Liadan thought. She found herself unable to be irritated with him at this breech of etiquette. Vector was such a strange mix of awkwardness and sophistication, and Liadan wondered how he reconciled these two halves of himself – the Killik and the human.

So she told him a bit about her family. Nothing too revealing though. He didn't need to know about how she'd lived her whole life trying to match her older sister's perfection; how even in death her sister continued to cast a long shadow over her; how her mother had told her, "it should have been you" at the funeral. She focused instead on the small kindnesses her father had shown her and how she had secretly loved the gentleness in his eyes. He was the only reason she occasionally went home to visit. Those visits were getting more and more infrequent now. Since entering Intelligence, she'd been forced to hide much of what she did and that didn't encourage familiarity. Intelligence suited her though. She was already used to living a life unobserved and unnoticed.

"As to my having a husband…" she said to Vector. She tried to read some emotion in those black eyes, but could not. "Are you asking me if I'm single?"

"That was part of the question," Vector said simply. He appeared to notice her reticence. "We'd like to know the answer."

Was he saying he was interested in her? Or was she just another subject of his intellectual curiosity?

"No I'm not married," she said. "Being an agent doesn't really allow for intimacy." _Or at least not of the emotional kind._

"We understand," Vector said. "It seems a lonely life."

Liadan was reminded then that Vector was now an agent too and was probably thinking of his own future.

"We agents have each other," she said. That wasn't entirely true, but she liked to think of her little crew as a kind of family, eccentric though it may be. It was really all she had.

"We like that way of thinking," Vector said. "We will keep that in mind."

They left the cantina. Liadan was surprised to learn that Vector had a small apartment in Kaas City. With the exception of the last few days, he hadn't lived there since being assigned to Alderaan.

"Is it strange to go back now?" Liadan asked.

"It is," he said. "We are still trying to decide what to bring with us when we leave with you. Actually, our apartment is nearby. Would you like to come inside?"

Liadan had never known a man to invite her to his apartment without it being an invitation to his bed as well. She'd always been confident navigating these waters, but Vector frequently left her on uncertain footing. She decided he wasn't being anything other than polite. She was surprised to find that she felt a bit disappointed. He was handsome enough, but he was so…odd. Was Vector really having that kind of effect on her?

Vector's apartment was on the 134th level. As they rode the elevator up, Liadan decided that she never would have been able to afford a place in this building.

"A few years ago," Vector said, "they almost changed the key entry system into a retina scan. That would have been problematic."

Liadan looked at him to find him smiling. The rest of the galaxy may have thought that becoming a Joiner was a tragedy, but she liked that Vector could find humor in it. She laughed. "I bet. I doubt they have any Joiner residents here."

"We are sure we're the only one."

There was no need for a speeder, since Vector's apartment was a short walk down the building's interior street. He ran his key card across a sensor in the wall and the door slid open.

Inside was a small one room studio with no windows. Windows to the outside were extremely rare and usually only the wealthiest citizens could afford them, so Liadan wasn't surprised. The place Vector had once called home was a perplexing cross between a bachelor pad and a museum. It had a kind of controlled clutter, with pockets of neatness interspersed with haphazard groupings of cultural artifacts from all over the galaxy. She imagined most of them were gifts that he had received in his time as a diplomat. She saw a wooden totem of some unfamiliar animal with a beak and six legs, a colorful woven blanket, and something that might have been an oversized eating utensil – if you had two mouths anyway.

There was a bed, neatly made, a small kitchen with an antiquated teapot on the stove, and a holoterminal in the center of the room. Over in the corner was plant, long since dead, and a desk and chair. Liadan wandered over to it.

On the desk was an odd looking holopad stylus. Liadan picked it up and a smudge came off on her hand. She stared at it a moment uncomprehending. Then the truth came to her. It was ink.

"You have a writing pen?" she asked.

"Several actually," Vector said. "You'd be surprised how many cultures still use them."

"Do you collect them?"

"You could say that."

"You have a lot of fascinating things, Vector," Liadan said. "You should charge admission." She turned to grin at him.

"Most people aren't interested in these things, we're afraid. They are more like mementos to us." For a moment Liadan thought she caught a hint of wistfulness in his voice.

"I'm interested."

"You are not like 'most people', Agent," Vector said. He was studying her from across the room and Liadan felt suddenly self-conscious.

"Perhaps," she said, looking away.

After complimenting Vector on his eccentric collection, and him offering a few interesting facts about some of the more unusual pieces, Liadan left him to sort through his things. As she rode a taxi to back to the spaceport – her ship was her home – she thought about Vector. He had learned more about her in a few hours than Kaliyo had by traveling with her for months. She felt she should be wary about this - such openness with a new agent was dangerous surely - but she didn't care. She indulged herself for the briefest moment imagining that she had a partner at her side who she could truly be herself with; no barriers, no lies, just a peacefulness between them born from the ultimate trust. It was a fantasy of course. But it felt good to dream.


	2. Chapter 2

Liadan bumped into Vector unexpectedly a few days later as she was leaving Intelligence headquarters from a routine medical check-up. Vector fell into step beside her and they exchanged commentaries about the weather (always raining), the likelihood of a coming war (inevitable) and whether Rodian food was spicier than Corellian (Corellian definitely.) Vector liked the theater, she discovered, and he was planning to attend a show the next night. Did she want to join him? Liadan heard herself saying yes.

And that's how Liadan inadvertently ended up on a date – of sorts - with Vector.

Liadan was unaccountably nervous when the following night rolled around. She hadn't worn a dress in ages, not since her sister's funeral anyway, and she wondered briefly how she'd managed to get herself into this. Kaliyo didn't have lodging in Kaas City and so was staying in her usual quarters on the ship. She was there to see Liadan off.

"Damn, agent, you look good," Kaliyo said. She cocked her head and looked her up and down. "Who you trying to impress?"

"No one," Liadan said quickly. "I'm just going to the theater with Vector."

"You're rockin' it with Bugboy?"

Liadan rolled her eyes and started down the hallway.

"You're joking." Kaliyo was following her. "You might want to pack some bug spray."

"Kaliyo, lay off," Liadan said. "I'm getting to know my crew. You like hitting the bars, Vector likes theater. Move aside, please, I'm going to be late."

Kaliyo snorted derisively, but complied. "Have it your way, agent."

Liadan found Vector waiting for her outside the theater entrance. He was dressed in a formal jacket and she had to admit that he looked very much in his element here. He took her hand and bowed. "We are pleased to see you, agent."

"You look stunning," she said. It was true.

"Thank you. We could say the same of you." He smiled and offered her his arm.

Liadan made a quick observation as they walked towards the door. This was a place for Dromund Kaas's elite, and there wasn't another alien in sight. She was going to be noticed.

"We make an unusual pair, you know." They were passing through the lobby and already she had gotten one or two looks. "A Joiner and a Zabrak." She wondered if he would take insult to her including him in that assessment, but she preferred to not avoid the obvious.

"We are not here to impress," Vector said.

Liadan laughed. "I like your attitude. Let's just enjoy ourselves then, shall we?"

"Indeed we shall." He smiled at her.

Liadan found the show to be a welcome escape. It was good sometimes to leave behind the planning, the paranoia and the lies that had become an everyday part of her life. But she was still an agent, and couldn't help watching and noticing everyone around her. It was a survival mechanism that she had learned early.

During intermission, she noticed a woman discretely looking at them. She was a tall, slender human with dark hair, and looked to be of similar age to them both. Liadan nudged Vector with her arm.

"Does that woman know you, Vector?"

Vector glanced in the direction where Liadan was looking. "Yes, we know her. Or we _knew_ her…it was a long time ago now."

Liadan looked back as they walked away. The woman caught her eye and gave her a derisive look, but there was sadness there too, and maybe something else, something she couldn't name. _They were lovers once_, she realized. _Probably before he became a Joiner._ _He would have been quite a catch then. _Not for the first time she wondered what Vector had been like then and what he had given up after being so profoundly changed.

Afterwards, they went to one of the quieter, more upscale cantinas nearby and found a corner to sit in. They had apparently had different interpretations of the ending to the performance and they lost a considerable chunk of time discussing it. Vector was quite persuasive, Liadan discovered. By the end of the conversation he had somehow led her, quite adeptly, into agreeing with him. He had done it with such casual ease, all while considering her thoughts attentively and never outright dismissing her. _He's a diplomat, alright_, she thought. _But he knows how to manipulate too._ She found herself smiling. He was going to make a good agent.

oo0oo

Vector was surprised by the sleek elegance of the Cipher Nine's starship. She must be a valued asset indeed if Intelligence was willing to give her such luxury. The walls were virtually sound proof, but he could still feel the great machine humming all around him. The vibrations he felt reminded him of the hive. He wandered briefly onto the bridge, but the sheer number of electrical instruments there was overwhelmingly distracting to him. The electro-magnetic fields spun and collided with one another in an endless cacophony, and the air felt charged against his skin. He marveled briefly at all he had missed before he had become a Joiner. None of this would have been a part of his awareness then.

He left quickly and found things to be the most bearable in the cargo area at the back of the ship. Cipher Nine had been true to her word, and all the things he'd packed were there, delivered safely. He was relieved to see that his holopad full of books had made the journey. Some officer had tried to confiscate it, probably concerned that he was taking confidential documents from the Diplomatic Service (they didn't seem to trust him anymore either.) Cipher had brokered no argument however, and had left the officer flustered and apologetic. Vector had been touched by her kindness.

She was approaching now, coming silently down the hallway. Her electro-magnetic aura preceded her and gave her away. It was a brilliant hue, red like her skin, but much brighter. It was so striking that he had to remind himself not to stare.

"Oh good, looks like everything's here. We'll be able to ship off tonight then." She paused to check over a few boxes, matching them with the ship's manifest in her hand. The droid should be doing that sort of work, but perhaps she just liked to be thorough.

He had been surprised upon first meeting her to see that she was a Zabrak. Most people, in any position of real power, were human. That said a lot about her already. She had no doubt pushed her way through much resistance just to get this far in her career, and had the no nonsense attitude to go with it. Her facial tattoos gave her a fierce predatory look, but he had noticed, nestled among the deep red curls of her hair, that she had delicate pieces of jewelry hanging from two of her horns. The unexpected touch of femininity softened her. Was she pretty even? Vector found it pleasant watching her. Maybe it was her aura.

Being transferred so unexpectedly to Intelligence had been a surprise, but not a totally unwelcome one. He was pleased to have been assigned to Cipher Nine. His first meeting with her had impressed him. She had not been afraid to enter the hive to see him, and had worked with the Killiks without prejudice or distain. He was looking forward to working with her more regularly now.

She straightened up and faced him, a brief look of hesitation crossing her face. Then it was gone.

"Vector?"

"Yes, agent?"

"I would like you to take a walk with me outside….so we can talk alone for a bit."

That peaked his curiosity. "Of course."

"Right now, if you are ready."

Vector nodded and followed her out the door.

oo0oo

Liadan took him to one of the cliffs along the edge of Kaas City. She wanted complete privacy and even her ship wasn't always the safest place. Kaliyo was notoriously nosy, and Liadan also made a habit of checking for listening devices after every stop at the capitol city. She would do that again after they left port.

It was a rare day in Kaas City, because for once it wasn't raining. Dark clouds threatened the sky though, looking ominous, and promising a return to the usual weather soon.

Liadan picked her way along the grassy clumps and found a spot with a dizzying view. A small taxi was floating across the gorge in the distance, heading to either Imperial Intelligence or the Sith headquarters. She sat down on a dry rock and gestured for Vector to sit next to her.

"Do you miss Kaas City when you are away?"

Vector was silent a moment. He never responded hastily about anything. Liadan wondered if he pondered his breakfast choices just as carefully. "Maybe sometimes," he said at last. "But we enjoy seeing new places and experiencing new things as well. We haven't travelled as much since the Joining."

"Well, you'll get to travel a lot with me."

"We look forward to it."

Liadan paused a moment, wondering if was time to broach the real topic she'd brought him here for. Their month of leave was over. She'd put it off long enough.

"You are different from what I'd been told about Joiners."

Vector nodded, as if he had had this conversation before. "We are Dawn Herald, and as such, have more autonomy than the typical Joiner. It is what makes us useful to you."

"Is that like an ambassador for the Killiks?"

"That, and more. We were taught combat techniques as well."

"So I noticed." Liadan gave him a wry smile. "Look," she said, becoming serious again, "my questions are not just personal. There are things I need to ask you for professional reasons. I hope you understand."

"Of course." Vector turned those black, disconcerting eyes on her.

"I need you to explain this hive mind to me. You have access to every other Joiner's memories and they have access to yours?"

"We understand your concern," Vector said. "Memories are not like data files. They are fluid, sometimes inaccurate, incomplete, and full of the feelings of their original owner. Are you afraid that having us aboard your ship compromises your mission?"

Liadan sighed. "I need to be honest with you." Funny, using that phrase. A declaration of honesty usually meant that she was about to lie. But this time she really meant it. Something about Vector made her want to be straight with him.

"You will see and be involved in things with me that are not officially acknowledged, and which carry great risk. If one of our enemies were to get a hold of another Joiner somewhere, and then use them to access what _you_ know…that could be a problem." That was an understatement. But there, she had said it.

"It is very rare for a Joiner to leave the nest," Vector said. He didn't seem alarmed or insulted by her mistrust at all. "Remember, we are not like other Joiners." He gave her a quick and pointed glance. "Someone would have to go through an entire hive of Killiks to reach a Joiner inside. They are very well protected. Such a breach would have diplomatic complications as well. And even if a Joiner were captured, they might not be able to retrieve or understand how to look for what was asked of them. The hive mind is vast and goes back centuries."

Liadan thought about this a moment. Somehow, Intelligence thought Vector was safe enough, although she hadn't understood why. Maybe this explained it.

"All right," she said finally. "That makes sense."

"We thank you for your candor, agent, and for giving us the chance to explain ourselves."

Liadan waved a hand dismissively. "In that case, I now have a request. My next mission is delicate, and my current partner can be rather…."she searched for the right word, "unsubtle." Kaliyo was more than just unsubtle, but she wasn't about to unload all her doubts about the woman to Vector. "You have restraint and insight I can use. You're obviously intelligent, are combat seasoned, and I think I can trust you. You-" Liadan stopped, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious. Apparently, she thought pretty highly of him.

Vector was actually smiling. It humanized him and for a moment Liadan caught a glimpse of the man he must have once been.

"You can keep going," he said. "We don't mind."

Liadan laughed. "Well, that's enough for now. Don't want to let it all go to your head. Let's start back."

oo0oo

Cipher Nine had taken him with her on every mission since that conversation they had had two weeks earlier. Her previous partner, Kaliyo, was plainly uncomfortable around him, and had taken to openly calling him "Bugboy" even when he was in earshot. The agent, his agent – when had he started thinking of her that way? – was pleased with him and that was all that concerned him.

Kaliyo was pestering Cipher Nine now. It was impossible not to overhear.

"Yeah, yeah, just dump me like a dead womp rat," Kaliyo was saying. She sounded defiant and petulant, but then again, she always sounded that way.

"Kaliyo, I assign people in this crew to certain missions and this one is Vector's. Am I not keeping you busy enough?"

"Nah, that's not it. But don't think I don't know what's going on."

"What are you talking about?" Cipher Nine sounded annoyed.

"You're not thinking with your head anymore. You've got it goin' on with Bugboy."

"What?" Cipher Nine sounded exasperated now, but Vector noted, she didn't deny it. "Wait, this is none of your business. You bring back a different guy here every other night we're in port. And I have allowed it."

Vector decided it was time to get away without being noticed. He began thinking back to the last few times he'd been in Cipher Nine's company. _Was_ there something going on between him and the agent? He enjoyed being with her. She seemed to laugh a lot when she was with him, and wasn't averse to touching him like most non-Joiners were. Then there was something she'd said to him recently. They'd had some trouble with the last infiltration mission, and not accounted for one of the roaming guard droids. It came up behind her and started shooting. She never would have admitted it or asked for help, but he'd known she'd been in trouble when he looked back and saw her shooting herself with a jolt of kolto. He'd leapt to her side immediately and finished the work she had started disarming and taking out the droid.

"We are victorious," he said.

She had smiled at him and squeezed his arm. "Indeed we are," she had said, including herself in that 'we'. "Thanks."

At first, Vector had keenly mourned the solitude that came with leaving the nest, but at that moment he had felt a part of something again. He could still conjure up the feeling of her hand on his arm.

He was going to have to say something to her. He didn't want to ruin this. At one time, he would have felt confident and assured flirting with women, enjoying their attentions even. But that seemed so long ago. Emotions were harder for him to decipher now and his old memories felt far away indeed.

oo0oo

"You wanted to speak to me?" Liadan asked. Vector was waiting for her in the conference room. She closed the door behind her.

"Agent."

Liadan had never told any of the other agents her real name, but somehow Vector managed to make just calling her 'agent' sound meaningful, intimate even. She felt a brief, strange thrill as she imagined hearing his voice say her real name. She tried to put the thought out of her head.

"When we were a diplomat, we were adept at reading people," he was saying, "but since the Joining, we find it harder. We want to ask you something and we need you to be direct in your answer."

"Go ahead."

"Has our relationship gotten unprofessional?"

_First Kaliyo, now Vector_, Liadan thought. Seems she was getting it from all sides lately. She caught herself about to say something defensive and then thought better of it. Vector was watching her with such an intense, earnest curiosity that she knew he wasn't trying to goad her.

"This is not an ordinary job that we do," she began. "Capture or death is a real possibility. I like to get to know my crew because I'm going to be trusting them with my life. It's a lonely life we lead, and who else could understand what we go through but us?"

Vector nodded and appeared to be considering this.

"Or," Liadan added, "if you want an even more direct answer, it's my ship and I say we can be as friendly as we want to be."

"So, how just how friendly are we, Agent?"

_Damn,_ Liadan thought. _There's no avoiding this, is there?_

"I'd like it if we could continue getting to know each other better," she said. "And maybe…we can have something more between us." She let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding.

"We would like that," Vector said.

oo0oo

Vector's body sat on the floor of Cipher's starship, but his mind was far away in time and place. He was communing with the hive, letting images of countless memories wash over him. He allowed himself to float aimlessly, gently sending out a thought to direct himself here and there, but mostly letting the currents take him where they may. Memories of other Joiners past and present came and went in rapid succession; so many memories, so many lives. He saw the sorrows and joys of others long past, felt their pain, shared in their triumphs. He saw lovers entwined in a passionate embrace, and felt the heat and power that moved between them. He lingered over these images, curiously at first, and then with a more pointed interest. They were not his own, but they were familiar. His own memories floated to the surface next, and he saw a younger version of himself caressing a woman with love in his touch. He remembered. He let go and the memories were carried away again, to mingle with the others.

There was no shame in sharing these thoughts with the hive, or with knowing the most intimate thoughts of others. Memories were not good or bad, or something to be hidden. They simply _were_. There was no judgment among the Joiners. Each memory was a piece in a vast, vibrant symphony, every experience worthy of its place. The Song of the Universe contained it all. Together they achieved perfection.

Vector felt something tickle the edges of his awareness and he pushed reluctantly back to consciousness like a diver coming up for air.

"Vector?" It was Cipher.

"We are here, agent," he said. A holotransmitter was sitting at his feet, broadcasting empty static. Somehow his thoughts had wandered and the sound had put him in a trance. "We were communing with the hive. But we are back now." He looked around, realizing how much time had passed.

"Good. Just wanted to make sure you were all right."

"We are, but agent? There is something we would like to show you." He stood and picked up the holotransmitter. "We received this recently, and we meditated for two hours on the static, but we still have questions."

He held out the device and it sputtered to life. The tiny image of a woman appeared. Vector watched the message again. The woman was pleading and sad. She wanted Vector to return to her, she wanted to "cure" him. She was sorry for the way things ended.

Cipher watched in silence until it finished and then she said immediately, "It's the woman from the theater."

"Yes," Vector admitted. "Her name is Anora. We were nearly engaged once."

Cipher studied his face with interest. "If there was a "cure" for being a Joiner, would you take it?"

"No," Vector said. "We are content with our life now. We see her here, and we know we loved her once, but we feel nothing now." He paused, searching for the right words. "Is it normal…it is _human_…to not feel anything for her?" He looked at Cipher, hoping she would be honest with him. He had to know. How much humanity had he lost? Was love an emotion he could no longer experience?

"People change, Vector," she said. "People fall out of love. That could have happened to anyone."

He felt relief wash over him. He hoped she was right. "Thank you agent."

She left and he considered what she had said. He didn't feel anything for Anora anymore, but he did feel something for Cipher Nine, didn't he?

He thought highly of her. She was an able fighter, a competent medic, and she never took her skills for granted. He had seen her studying medicine on her holopad, never satisfied with her current knowledge. He was perfectly willing, even grateful, when she eagerly wanted to try out her new field skills on him. They had already faced some formidable challenges, but Vector felt confident with her at his back. He enjoyed protecting her.

She was a rising star in Intelligence. Vector enjoyed watching her and learning from her example. She quickly saw connections that others missed, assessed dangerous situations accurately, and was not afraid to speak her mind. She slipped in and out of accents and cover roles like a snake shedding its skin. He'd seen her expertly manipulate people without them ever realizing it, and she threw herself into her work with total determination, always giving everything she had. If force or guile were not available methods, she found other more creative ways of extracting information. He'd seen men spill their secrets to her all for a look, a word, or an innuendo.

She wanted to have a relationship with him. She wanted him to be more than just a fellow agent. Vector thought back to the memories he'd recently seen, and thought about what that meant. They were compatible as a working team. Maybe they could be something more?

He wanted to do this right. She had accepted his Killik nature as no one else had, yet he wanted to be human for her too. He was going to find his humanity again, he decided. With her help he would coax that part of him back to life.


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn't long after that when something went very wrong. He and Cipher Nine had gone to meet a contact. It was going to be a risky mission, requiring deep cover. They were posing as defectors with the ultimate goal of infiltrating the Republic's spy network, the Strategic Information Service. The first contact they with met was a man named Hunter. Vector distrusted him immediately, but then again, why would he trust a Republic spy in the first place? Vector stood back in the crowd, watching Cipher Nine from across the cantina. There were other members of the SIS here now, he knew, just as they knew _he_ was here. It was all part of the game. He was learning fast.

When that meeting went well, they were invited to the next contact. This was the important one. Looking back, Vector wished now that he had done something, said something, but he had told Cipher Nine that he would follow her lead, and so he had stayed silent.

They were separated. Ardun Kothe, the spy they were after, took Cipher Nine into a room alone. She was gone a long time. He felt less and less at ease with every passing moment. When she finally came out, she looked unharmed, and they left quickly. But she was not the same. She had returned to him…changed somehow.

"Yes, we're in," was all she said when he asked her how it went. Her aura was agitated, swirling around her and alternating rapidly between too dim and too bright. Her pheromonic scent was wrong too. Bitter. It took him a moment to recognize what it was. She was afraid.

He had watched Cipher Nine face down a powerful Sith Lord and member of the Dark Council. He had watched her keep her poise and wits about her in the face of almost certain death and near impossible odds. If something out there was enough to scare his agent, it was something that frightened him as well.

oo0oo

Liadan had lost her mind. She had gone into that meeting backed by her training and experience, yet somehow, all her preparation had been for naught. Ardun Kothe had said a word, a "keyword" he called it, and suddenly Liadan's free will was gone. He told her to jump and she obeyed. She was also forbidden to harm any of Kothe's immediate team members, and worst of all, she was forbidden from telling anyone what had been done to her.

She was a tool of the Republic now.

She had gone straight back to her ship and got Keeper, her commander, on holocall. "They're brainwashing me!" she'd tried to say, but instead her mouth said different words, words not of her choosing. Things were under control, she told Keeper. But they were not. Liadan had never felt more out of control in her life.

There was something else going on in her brain now too, or someone else rather. Watcher X, an imprisoned agent she had worked with on Nar Shaddaa, kept speaking to her. That was impossible though, because he was dead. She had been the one to kill him. She was definitely going mad.

Guilt ate at her, fear ate at her. Watcher X had warned her of this. The Empire had used him and then tossed him away. Was it just her guilty conscience recreating his voice in her head? He was offering her advice one minute, teasing her the next, and always in that smooth, sardonic tone. Liadan had to free herself or a lot more than just the mission was in jeopardy.

She was still taking Vector with her on all her missions, but he was too astute not to notice that something was amiss. She wondered if – or when – Ardun Kothe would ask her to finally do something that would make the Empire suspicious. Would Kothe force her to become a traitor? She thought of Vector's unwavering loyalty to the Empire and how he had even fought Killiks from his own hive for the Empire's cause. If he started to suspect she was disloyal, would he even hesitate to turn her in?

One of her mentors had always said, "Trust no one." Now, she saw how right he was. She truly didn't - couldn't - trust anyone anymore.

oo0oo

Liadan crouched behind the rock with Vector beside her. Her conditioning from Ardun Kothe may be keeping her from harming his SIS team directly, but it wasn't stopping her from sabotaging the Republic every chance she got. She'd taken to such tasks now with a vengeance. Together, she and Vector had left behind over half a dozen bodies in the winding cave entrance behind them. This was war. Oh it may not be official yet, but it was war.

Ahead of them the command center area glowed and blinked with a million bright lights. She counted three officers who all seemed oblivious to the destruction she and Vector had caused back in the tunnel. Sloppy of them. Their primitive set-up in this cave probably kept them from utilizing better defense mechanisms. She boosted the power of her stealth generator and nodded to Vector. He fell in behind her and they approached the group.

She gestured at two of the male officers who were conferring together over a map and Vector peeled off and headed towards them. The third, a woman, was keying some data into a terminal nearby. That one was hers. Liadan withdrew her vibroknife and silently closed the distance.

Vector leapt at the two men, electrostaff poised for a sweeping strike, and Liadan let the stealth shield drop. She relished that split second moment, where even from her distance she could see the looks of terror and surprise on their faces. She and Vector had done this move now many times, but Liadan was still impressed with Vector's graceful movements. The Killiks had some interesting techniques.

The woman at the terminal had turned upon hearing the cries from the men, and Liadan used the opportunity to drive her vibroknife into the woman's back. The shock of the electrified blade paralyzed her victim instantly, and woman's muscles convulsed for a few moments while she wavered on her feet. Liadan had her second knife ready. A few fast strokes and the woman fell to the floor. Liadan stepped away from the rapidly growing pool of blood.

She pulled her gun and prepared to take out one of the men fighting Vector. His fight had led him down the back stairs of the raised command deck and she could no longer see him. Then she spotted the head of one of the officers behind the platform.

She was a split-second away from pulling the trigger when the gun was yanked from her hand. It flew across the room and landed on the ground, where it spun briefly before stopping. Liadan whirled about, but there was no one there.

Then she heard the tell-tale buzz above her of a lightsaber being drawn. Curse her luck! There was a cat-walk suspended over the command console. She could have sworn it was empty. The Jedi dropped down from the platform and landed a short distance away. For a moment they just stared each other down, watching each other with their blades drawn.

"It's over Imp," the Jedi said.

Liadan didn't know if she could match a Jedi's skill, but she wasn't about to go down without giving him a fight he wouldn't forget.

She beckoned to him. "Come and get me."

He was in front of her instantly, and she threw her vibroknife before her face, just barely in time to block his blow. Her electrified blade skittered against his light-based one, but thankfully it held. Liadan was well practiced in hand-to-hand combat, and she was fast on her feet. She ducked away from the next two swings and threw herself to the ground in a controlled roll for the third. The Jedi was there with impossible speed, looming above her as she crouched. He was wearing armor under his robes, she saw. He pulled his blade back for a sharp stab and Liadan knew this was her opening. She thrust her knife upwards into the small break between his armor at his waist. She felt it slide in and the Jedi jumped back with a cry.

She leapt to her feet but by the next breath he was already on her again. The brilliant green glow of the Jedi's lightsaber left a trail of blurry light across her vision at this close a range. Liadan struggled to remain focused. She slashed at his face, but only managed to nick him above his eye. Her knife had a strong, wide blade, but she feared it would be no match for a lightsaber. The Jedi spun and Liadan ducked a boot that had been meant for her face. For a brief moment she was left off-balance. The buzz of the lightsaber was suddenly very close to her ear and she felt a burning pain across her shoulder. She had the quick, disturbing thought that if she hadn't been wearing armor, she would have lost an arm. She forced the burning sensation out of her mind.

The lightsaber flashed again and Liadan stumbled as it grazed her hip. The Jedi would pick her apart piece by piece, wound by wound. He was tiring her out. How long could she last against him? The stab in his side was flowing freely with blood, but it appeared to barely faze him. It had not gone in deep enough.

He struck at her again, a low wide sweep, and even though she jumped aside, the blade opened a wound in her calf. She was breathing hard now. The hilt of her vibroblade tickled her palm for a moment, and she knew it was charged and ready for a debilitating strike. She thrust it at his shoulder joint and she felt the blade discharge its electric shock, but somehow the Jedi resisted its effects. Liadan stabbed at him with her off-hand knife but he blocked it.

Suddenly the Jedi threw his hand out and Liadan was lifted off her feet and thrown backwards into the air. For a terrifying moment she saw the Jedi below her growing farther away. _Damn all force users to the void of space! _she thought. Then she hit the wall behind her.

Brilliant pinpricks of light swam over her vision. The ground came up to meet her.

She rolled painfully onto her back. Somehow she hadn't been knocked unconscious. Where were her knives? Had she dropped them? She looked up and threw her hands before her face. The Jedi was looming over her. The lightsaber coming towards her face was going to be the last thing she saw.

Suddenly Vector was there, leaping over her body to meet the lightsaber blade with his staff. A few fast strikes drove the Jedi back in surprise. The Jedi recovered quickly, however, and aimed a strong blow at Vector's left side. Liadan saw the char marks on Vector's cloak as the blade sliced into him. He stumbled but didn't falter.

Liadan thrust out her hand and shot a Kolto dart from her wristband in Vector's direction. Then she shot another. The Jedi started to spin for a kick and Vector drew back at the same time, preparing a strike of his own. Liadan could hear his electostaff charging up and knew what was coming.

Vector lunged forward and a brilliant red light emerged from one end of his staff. He drove it through the Jedi's torso and out the other side. The light blinked out as Vector pulled back again. The Jedi fell and was still. Vector dropped to his knees and a sudden stillness overtook the room.

Liadan tried to get up, but was hit with a wave of dizziness, so she crawled instead. She approached and gave Vector another strong dose of kolto. Then she aimed a surgical probe at his side so it could begin knitting up the wound. Finally she used some of the medicine on herself.

The Jedi lay nearby, his eyes staring blankly. In death he was just another man after all. Liadan turned back to Vector.

"Can you walk?" she asked.

Vector nodded and slowly got to his feet. "We will be all right. We wonder about you, rather."

"I think I can…" Liadan rose unsteadily and took a few steps forwards but the world tilted sideways. Vector grabbed before she could fall.

"We should leave here," he said. He was looking around nervously.

"I need to slice the terminal." Liadan shot herself with some adrenaline and her head cleared a bit. "Help me get over there."

Leaning on Vector, Liadan made her way back to the console. She had to step carefully around the puddle of blood on the floor.

She sliced into the data bank and drew out the files she needed. This was the easy part and she had come well-prepared. She nodded when she was done.

Together, she and Vector made their way out of the cave. It was night and it would be a while yet before someone noticed that communications had ceased from this post. She slumped onto a rock and Vector sat on a rock across from her. For a moment, they just existed in silence, letting their eyes adjust to the darkness.

"So," Liadan said, in a half-hearted attempt to lighten the mood, "are you sure you still want to be an agent?"

When Vector didn't say anything at first, she regretted her question. Maybe he really did want out. It took a certain kind of person to do this job and Vector had not chosen this life. Was he thinking of asking for a transfer? Liadan felt a heavy swell of disappointment. She didn't want to imagine facing these challenges without Vector. She'd come to rely on him. And of course, he'd saved her life. Again.

"We are honored to be here," he said at last.

"Really?" She sounded a little too hopeful. She was momentarily embarrassed by the change in her voice.

"We are Dawn Herald. We fight for you."

Liadan felt self-conscious and moved by his declaration. "Thank you," she managed awkwardly. She glanced up at him. He had those black eyes steadily trained on her.

"There is no one else I would rather have at my side," she told him.

Vector actually smiled then. "We know," he said. "And we are glad."


	4. Chapter 4

Things didn't get much better in the weeks that followed. In the field, Cipher Nine was competent and self-assured, but back on the ship she became a ghost of her former self, sometimes staring morosely out the windows and other times snapping at anyone who got in her way. (The ship's droid seemed to get the brunt of her anger, thankfully.)

Kaliyo didn't know what was wrong either. Vector had even tried taking to Dr. Lokin, their newest crew member, to see if she had been to see him about any ailment. It was terribly impolite to ask such a thing, but Vector was getting worried. Unfortunately, Dr. Lokin didn't know anything either. It seemed that Cipher Nine confided in no one.

Gradually, her bouts of distemper worsened. She began having strange moments of forgetfulness, even when they were out in the field on a job. Sometimes, she would drift away in the middle of a conversation and just stare into space as if listening to something. Vector would have to call her name several times before she even heard him, and sometimes even that wasn't enough.

Then came the night that he thought he'd almost lost her.

She was making a call at the ship's holoterminal. Dr. Lokin was in the adjacent lab feverishly taking notes on some experiments he'd run that day, and Vector was reading in an alcove nearby. Kaliyo was out prowling the town – as usual.

Vector heard the fuzz of the call terminating and glanced up to see Cipher still staring at the empty terminal. Her aura was wavering strangely, and she appeared transfixed. What was most disturbing of all was the look of frozen terror on her face. Vector came to his feet just as her aura dimmed and she threw her hands in front of her, as if shielding herself from a blow. She made a cry like nothing he had ever heard – he could hear it still if he thought about it – and then she crumpled to the ground.

Vector didn't even remember crossing the room. He was there at her side, calling to her. He gathered her up and held her against him. She was still and lifeless, but he could feel the beat of her heart faintly thrumming. He called loudly for Dr. Lokin and then looked up to see him already there.

"Bring her in here," Lokin said. His usual jovial face looked grave. Vector picked up Cipher and carried her into the medbay. She still didn't stir when he laid her on the cot inside.

Lokin waved an instrument over her and grunted when it beeped. Vector held her hand in his. He would have never dared to do such a thing when she was awake, but that was inconsequential now. Her coppery red skin was oddly pale, making the dark tattoos on her face stand out sharply. He willed her to open her eyes. He stroked her cheek and called her name again. In desperation he even reached out and tried to touch her mind with his, but of course it was closed to him. She had gone somewhere where he could not reach her. The thought terrified him.

He looked up to see Lokin smiling down at him. "You care about her, don't you?"

"Yes," he said. It came out without hesitation. When had he come to care so deeply about her? "If we could share her thoughts we would know what was wrong."

"It's like she just fainted," Lokin said. "Her blood pressure is low, but other than that I can find nothing wrong with her. Still, something is odd."

"Hey, what happened here?"

Vector looked up startled. He hadn't even heard Kaliyo come in. She fidgeted by the side of the bed while Lokin explained. "Weird," she said.

Cipher made a noise and her eyelids fluttered. Vector felt his heart skip a beat and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she was saying. She was already trying to get out of the bed.

They all took turns expressing their concern, but Cipher waved them away.

"It's just stress. I need some sleep." She went into her room and closed the door. She was hiding something from them. Vector didn't see her again for the rest of that evening.

oo0oo

Liadan was horrified. She had shown such weakness. What had happened and how long had she been unconscious? Watcher X had been in her head again, along with a series of terrifying visions that had flashed before her. "Brain damage," Watcher X had said. "The brain washing will do that to you." Then he was out of her head and standing beside her, looking at her. His face was serious but his eyes were laughing. "The SIS isn't to blame. We both know you were programmed before you met them. The Republic is only using what the Empire put in your mind."

…_what the Empire put in your mind…._

Liadan felt like she'd been hit. _I'm going mad_.

But it made sense. How had the SIS used that mysterious "keyword" on her? They had flicked a switch in her mind, a pre-programmed switch. Yes, she'd seen brain washing technology before. Not like this maybe, but the Empire was not beneath such methods. And neither was the Republic apparently. She had to reverse this. Being yoked to the whims of another was unbearable. It was an insult. It was a disgrace.

The answer would be in her Intelligence files. Time to infiltrate Headquarters and use her skills to help herself.

She went to bed early that night, but it was a restless sleep. She awoke during the early hours of the morning to a feeling of panic. The darkness in the room was swallowing her. She had to get out.

She crept out to the ship's bridge. A galaxy of stars winked before her, vast and cold, making her ship feel like an insignificant speck of dust. She was angry and humiliated by what had happened that day. She hated that her crew had seen her so vulnerable, and now they would have questions. What if they thought she was incompetent to do her job? Or that she was unstable? There was no one to see her here though, and thank the stars for that because the tears were coming. She tried to hold them back, but gave in at last, feeling defeated and disgusted with herself. She shook with silent sobs and cried until she was spent.

When the tears would come no more, Liadan became aware again of the ship around her. The instrument panel was the only source of light here on the bridge, and she wiped the tears from her eyes until the colored lights finally stopped blurring together. She had a sudden strange feeling that someone else was awake on the ship. She had kept very quiet, how could anyone have heard her?

"Agent?" It was Vector. "Are you all right?" Stars knew if that man had some kind of sixth sense. Liadan hurriedly wiped away the last of the tears.

"It's nothing," she said. "I just couldn't sleep."

He came and knelt next to her chair, so close that his arm was touching her knee.

"What is it?" he asked, peering up into her face. "We know there is something wrong. Your aura no longer sings. We are worried for you."

"Don't be," Liadan said, and it came out sounding sharper than she had intended. She shook her head and stood up. "I'm sorry…" _It's just that I'm unable to tell you_, she thought.

"We wish you would share with us what is wrong." In the dimness of the room she thought she saw Vector start to reach for her, but then he held back. "Is there something we can do for you?"

Liadan rubbed her forehead and looked away. Vector's face was shadowed, but his deep, cultured voice was like the gentle touch of a hand, and soft like velvet. She liked the little thrill she felt along her spine at hearing him talk to her, so close.

"No, nothing-" she started to say, but then stopped herself. "Wait." She touched his arm to keep him from backing away. "There is something." He was so close, she had but to turn a little to be virtually in his arms. She closed the gap between them and slipped her arms around his neck. "Just…_be_ with me here for a moment."

She felt him fit his arms around her, tentatively at first, and then he drew her in closer.

"Agent…" he said. His voice was like a caress.

Liadan felt the warmth of his body against hers and a longing awoke inside her. She did indeed want comfort, and of the kind only a man could provide. But she didn't know if she could ask that of Vector. He was too solicitous, too kind, and she feared that he would agree only because he didn't want to refuse her.

She didn't want to pull away just yet though. She touched his cheek and kissed him, a small kiss at first and then a more lingering one. She was pleased to feel him return it. A strand of his hair tickled her cheek and she realized that for once his hair wasn't perfectly combed. She reached up and ran it through her fingers, letting the soft strands fall back in slight disarray. She wished there was a little better light so she could enjoy seeing this disheveled Vector.

"I want…" she started, and her mind finished the thought in her head. _I want you._ "I want to ask something of you, not as an agent but just…as a person."

"Yes?"

"Will you stay with me tonight? I don't expect anything of you," she added quickly. "And you are free to say no. I would just…like you there."

"We would never say no to that."

She took him by the hand and led him into her room. It was very dark when she closed the door, and so she pulled him gently over to where she knew the bed was. She felt him settle in next to her, and then he reached for her and she felt his breath against her hair.

She fell into a more peaceful sleep, and for a brief while she felt no fear.

oo0oo

Vector laid awake in Cipher's bed for a long time thinking over what had happened. Cipher appeared to be sleeping peacefully, but his senses were filled to brimming and he'd not sleep for a while yet. It was always dark in the windowless bedrooms on the ship, but Cipher's aura glowed warmly next to him. Holding her so close on the bridge had been nearly intoxicating. He had tasted her scent in the air all around him, and it still clung to him now. She tasted of spices and frost. He liked it very much.

She was torturing herself, over whatever was bothering her. He admired her courage but did not approve of the toll it was taking on her. He suspected something more than mere Zabrak stubbornness was going on. Ardun Kothe had hurt her somehow, taken something from her. She was no longer whole. He understood that feeling a little. While he knew now that his Joining had been a gift, he had struggled to hold onto his humanity. Cipher was drawing it out of him though. He was awakening anew.

He only wished he could help her as she was helping him.

He watched her sleep for a while, and wondered when she would ask him to stay with her again. He knew she had wanted more. Would he have offered it? The thought made his body respond, and for a moment he felt very human indeed. He closed his eyes to think about that some more until he finally drifted to sleep.

It was only a dream, Vector knew, but it was vivid. He was standing on the cliff on Dromund Kaas where he had once gone with Cipher, and she was there beside him. The air was alive with electricity, its power drumming over his skin, down his spine and through to the very roots of his hair. It sang to him. It was raining, he realized, yet he wasn't cold. The water ran over them both in tiny rivulets and he held up his hand for a moment to watch. Each drop was like its own world, perfect and whole. The song of the universe was strong in this place.

Could she feel it too? He turned to her, to tell her how beautiful it all was, but before he could speak she caught his face in her hands and kissed him. Here in this dream, he felt no hesitation. He pulled her against him and returned the kiss, tasting the rain on her lips, tasting her. She was tugging on his wet clothes, and he helped her remove them. _This is right_, he thought, _this is how it is supposed to be_. There should be nothing between them but the charged air. No, not even that. He wanted to feel the way these sparks played across her skin, and to feel them meet with his own.

Cipher said something to him, something bold. He was happy to oblige. Her aura was melding with his, flaming around them like firelight, enveloping him so that he was lost in it.

He took her body there on that soft grass, in the rain, as she had asked him to. And he felt whole.


	5. Chapter 5

Liadan holstered her blaster and patted the knives at her hips. She walked quietly past the large glowing holoterminal on her ship, using its light to guide her. She stopped briefly at the doorway that lead to her crew's quarters and listened. Sometimes Vector and Dr. Lokin liked to have lively discussions late into the night, but tonight all was quiet. _Good_, she thought. She didn't want to have to explain herself to anyone.

She'd intentionally chosen this odd hour to infiltrate Intelligence Headquarters. She knew that Headquarters would still be staffed, even now, but it would be a skeleton crew. Less people meant fewer witnesses and fewer authority figures that she might need to explain herself to. Intelligence was used to agents having unpredictable schedules, so her presence, while unexpected, would not be totally suspect. She needed to get into those archives. Without proper clearance, gaining access would be challenging, but she'd found her way into places as heavily guarded before.

She planned to do this alone. Swiping confidential Intelligence files that she did not have proper access to was clearly a violation. Dr. Lokin would no doubt tell her that anyone else joining her on this mission would be a liability. She'd been talking with Dr. Lokin a lot lately. He was a former agent himself, and was already becoming somewhat of a mentor to her. He was the oldest agent she'd ever met – it was rare to find an agent with grey hair – and no doubt he'd owed his longevity to a healthy dose of paranoia and mistrust. So Liadan was going by herself.

Liadan had been feeling preoccupied for days, planning this visit to Kaas City. She had turned over the same questions in her mind countless times. Why had the Empire inflicted this mind control technology on her and if so, when? Did it happen to all agents? She had thought back to her first days working with Intelligence, but could think of nothing unusual about that time that would give her a clue.

She had been distant with Vector as well, ever since the night she had asked him to stay with her. It's not that she regretted what she had done, or that she hadn't enjoyed those brief few hours of closeness. It was because she enjoyed it so much that it bothered her. What she was about to do now could get her slapped with a charge of misconduct at best, and full out treason at worst. Logic told her that trusting anyone now, with so much to lose, would surely be a mistake.

Yet, another nagging thought would not stop tugging at her, in spite of all this. Did she truly think Vector would betray her? It was true what she had said to him after the fight with the Jedi. _There is no one else I'd rather have at my side._ He had shown her nothing but loyalty and kindness. He had been the one to find her after her collapse, and none of the things she had feared had come true. He hadn't questioned her competence. He hadn't doubted her. In fact, he now knew something was wrong, and it was possible he was putting the clues together on his own. She was being unfair to him, she knew.

Asking him to come with her would also be asking him to risk his own position in Intelligence. She didn't want to do that to him.

She moved into the hallway, heading for the airlock. She passed the ship's droid, who had powered down for the night and was standing, like a silent sentinel, near the doorway. Liadan paused then, sure that she had heard something in the hallway behind her. She already knew who it would be before turning around.

"Vector," she said. There he was, standing at the end of the hall, just as she had suspected. She thought about lying to him, but knew it was useless. The blaster on her back said everything. She had been about to go on a dangerous mission without him. "How did you know I was up?"

"We sensed your aura outside our door just now," he said.

"My aura?" He'd spoken of this before, she recalled. "How could you see an aura through the door?"

He came closer. "We don't just see it, as much as experience it. Your aura has its own song and hue. We can feel it when you are near. It's beautiful, you know."

Liadan momentarily had forgotten what she was about to say. She recovered quickly. "I'm sorry about doing this Vector." She looked away.

"But Agent," Vector said quietly, "Why?"

It pained Liadan to hear the hurt in his voice. Either she was finally learning how to read him or his human side was showing through. She hesitated, suddenly doubting the reasoning behind her choice to exclude him. Even if she did take him with her, how she could explain to him what she was doing?

"I…" Liadan felt the mind control tightening its hold on her as she tried to speak. The words she wanted to say stuck to her tongue and new words started to spring to mind instead. _I don't need your help, _her mind told her to say. _I don't need you._

"I don't…" she tried to force her thoughts in a new direction, but her mind was like a ship on a downward spiral, heading swiftly for an inevitable crash. "I don't need…I don't…I don't…_no_!" She gritted her teeth to keep more of the false words from coming out. If she were going to lie, it would be a lie of her own choosing, not these thoughts that she did not own.

"Agent?" Vector's voice seemed far away.

Liadan rubbed her forehead as sharp pains began to sprout there. She was breaking out in a sweat from the effort of trying to resist. She leaned forward, with her hands on her knees, and tried to steady herself.

A surge of anger inside her gave her renewed determination. "I'm…I'm…" She took a deep breath, trying to retain control. Her temples were throbbing. A spike of pain shot through her head from one side to the other. _Hear that sound?_ she heard Watcher X say. _That's your skull cracking…_

"_Damn it!"_ she cried at last. She slammed a fist into the wall in frustration and slid to the floor.

"Stop," she heard Vector saying. She wondered how long he had been speaking. He was crouched in front of her and she felt his hands on her shoulders. "Stop…" His voice was gentler this time.

Liadan covered her face in her hands. The room suddenly didn't have enough air. She struggled to breathe, feeling angry and ashamed.

"Don't fight it," Vector said quietly, "…whatever it is. Stop fighting it." The last he said almost as a whisper.

Liadan looked up at him. He was studying her intently. He took her face in his hands, so close that the black pools of his eyes seemed to swallow her. Did he know? She wondered if he spoke from experience. Could he possibly understand her horror at having her mind so invaded? He was at peace with his Joining, but had he always been that way? Had he ever known this anger and helplessness? At least he still had his free will. If Ardun Kothe told her to fall upon her own blade when he no longer had a use for her, would she do it?

She nodded and he released her.

"Let us help you," Vector said. "We know you are strong. But together we can be stronger."

Liadan didn't want to fight this battle alone. "If you come with me," she said, "I need you to trust me on what I'm about to do."

"Agent," Vector said, "Our loyalty is to you, always."

Liadan felt some of the anger seeping away. "Thank you Vector. That means more than you know."

She made a decision then. She would give this man her trust, wholeheartedly, and would accept whatever came of it.

oo0oo

The rain pelted the jungle ground all around him, and the midnight sky lit up intermittently with brilliant streaks of lightning. Vector was drenched, but he waited and watched. He would stay here for as long as she needed him.

Cipher was a short ways away, throwing a set of knives at a large tree. One by one she sunk them like tiny missiles into the soft flesh of the trunk, and then yanked them out to begin again. The first few times she had pelted the tree with obscenities as well as knives, but her anger was a simmer now rather than a boil, and she was silent.

She had found a way to breach the security of the Intelligence archives, through duplicity, and finally, through brute force. Her ruse had been a dangerous one, and while she had managed to short-circuit all the monitoring systems, her actions had tripped the security droids, and they had been ferociously attacked several times. Vector was very glad she had agreed to let him come. He had guarded the door to each room while she watched the holo files. At one point, he had heard the voice of the Minister of Intelligence saying something about the Dark Council and Cipher Nine. They left to the repeated apologies of one of the Watchers, who assured them both that such a security malfunction was highly aberrant and would not happen again.

Cipher's armor was in a heap nearby, and she was as soaked with rain as he was. Her wrinkled clothes clung to her, revealing every swell and curve of her body, and Vector's mind began sending him vivid images from his recent dream. He watched her now, the way she moved with predatory grace, a fierce, hot energy wavering off of her in ripples that he could feel as well as see. He had no doubt now that his natural human desires were intact. He realized that if Cipher had wanted more intimacy from him that night in her bed that he would have been both capable and willing. But he saw something now that hadn't been apparent to him then. He had not thought at the time to question why she had held back from him, but now he thought he understood.

She was in love with him.

It was not a future possibility, nor something to ponder in theory, it was real and it was immediate. This was greater than just desire, and more complicated. She wanted more than only the physical bond, and was not willing to have one without the other. This should have been clear to him - and perhaps it would have been before the Joining – but only now did it make sense.

His bond with the hive was the strongest, most profound thing he knew. But once he had known another kind of bond, once he had thought he would marry. Love had far reaching implications. How much could he give? He wasn't sure how deep her feelings were for him, but he didn't want to underestimate where pursuing this course could take him. He was Dawn Herald, and he would always be a part of the hive. He had loyalties to both the Killiks and the Empire. And yet…he had declared his loyalties to Cipher only hours ago. He had meant it. Once he had followed her, believed in her, because supporting her was supporting the Empire. But the night he had felt her aura dim so suddenly in the med bay, the day he had seen her at the feet of some Jedi, her life only inches away from being lost to the stroke of a lightsaber – it was not the Empire he had feared losing then. He needed time to consider these things.

He pulled his eyes off of her and tried to refocus on his surroundings. The jungle was alive with native wildlife, and some species were dangerous and territorial. He needed to stay alert. Cipher was slowing down, finally tiring from the pace she'd been pushing herself at all night. It was very late.

The lamp over the forest trail nearby – their only light here other than the occasional lightning – sputtered suddenly. The air vibrated with electricity, stronger than Vector had ever felt it here, and just then the lamp crackled and went out. For a moment the darkness was absolute, and then a blinding flash lit the forest and Vector saw Cipher quickly looking around, searching for him. The darkness descended again.

Being a Joiner had heightened Vector's night vision somewhat, and what he couldn't decipher through the shadows he could sense in other ways. He followed the steady glow of Cipher's aura.

"Vector?" she called.

"We're here, agent."

Her arm searched the air and found him. Briefly her hand slid over his body, gently patting his chest and shoulders until she determined his position.

"I need to gather my things."

"If you stay by the tree," he said, "we can see enough to do that for you." He found her armor and she quickly shrugged it back on. Then he found her knives and she slipped them away.

"Ready," she said. She took his arm and he led her carefully back to the trail. From there the footing was more even and they were able to move with greater speed. The next lamp along the trail was not far and soon they were able to see its glow through the trees. A few minutes after that and they were at the gates of Kaas City.

Liadan was clearly exhausted now that her previous energy was spent. He paid for a programmed speeder to take them back to the space port and she climbed on behind him. She slumped against him with her head on the back of his shoulder for the duration of the ride, and stayed so still that when they arrived he wondered if she had fallen asleep. He sat on the speeder a moment, feeling the weight of her body lying against his. Her hands were clasped tightly around his waist and he laid a hand over them.

"We have arrived, agent."

She stirred and pulled away. "Good."

It was a relief to finally get out of the rain. Liadan blinked in the bright lights of the space port. She was silent until they reached the lift leading to their docking bay.

"You are so good to me, Vector," she said. Her voice held a note of sadness. Vector wondered at that, feeling a prickle of frustration because he did not know what had caused it. He wasn't sure how to respond.

She apparently wasn't expecting him to reply, and he followed her back to the ship. He started to head to his cabin, but she stopped him.

"Vector." He turned at the sound of her voice. "Thank you for coming with me tonight."

"Of course," he said.

She smiled suddenly, unexpectedly, and gave a short, low laugh. "You look completely unrecognizable."

"You look like you," he said. "Only wetter."

She laughed again. Then she came and stood in front of him and reached out to touch his hair. She pushed a large lock out of his eyes and combed it back against the others with her fingers.

"There," she said. "Now you look more like yourself. Good night Vector."

"Good night agent."

oo0oo

A few days later they were in Nar Shadaa, where Kaliyo had a friend she wanted to meet up with. Liadan was in the mood to forget her life, even if just for a little while, and so when Kaliyo invited her out to a cantina that night, she accepted. Kaliyo found a place that catered to a more alien crowd and Liadan proceeded to get herself slightly but pleasantly inebriated. She knew better than to incapacitate her wits too much of course, and she carried some concealed knives on her like she always did. She found herself in a mellow enough mood however that when a muscular Zabrak sidled up next to her she engaged him in flirtatious conversation. She had carefully noted him when he had first approached her to determine if he was carrying a lightsaber. She wanted no involvement with a force user of any kind, but most particularly a Sith. Their sadistic pleasures were not to her taste.

This one she guessed to be a free-lance mercenary, if the multitude of gadgets and weaponry – particularly the illegal ones - were any indication. She no longer was impressed with such displays, but neither was she intimidated either. She could take care of herself.

When he held up the key to a room on the floor above, she nodded and followed him. The mercenary told her his name was Kaz, and she gave him the name she often used when she wanted to be anonymous, Dani. It was a name from a simpler time, before things had gotten complicated. As soon as they were behind closed doors he wrapped his arms around her and slid his hands down her hips appreciatively.

"I like a woman with some meat on her," he said. She enjoyed being complimented by a man in this way. Her mother had often complained that she looked "too soft." Occasionally enemies had harbored that mistaken impression as well, much to their detriment. The last thing they saw was the tip of her blade.

Kaz gave her a rough, eager kiss, and Liadan tangled her hand in his hair, tugging slightly as the strands caught among her fingers. He growled in pleasure and took the kiss deeper. Liadan could feel his arousal already hard and strong against her hip. He stopped with a visible effort in order to extricate himself from the bristling array of weaponry he carried, and Liadan did the same. He raised an eyebrow at her as she removed her clothes to reveal the concealed knives. "I won't ask what it is that you do," he said, giving her a coy grin. She smiled back at him. "Nothing interesting," she said lightly.

Kaz didn't want to waste any more time. They took their pleasure from each other quickly, and while he left her satisfied, she still felt unfulfilled. She mulled over that as she got dressed again and realized then what she had done. She had chosen a man as unlike Vector as possible, in an attempt to keep him out of her thoughts. Kaz was a fine enough specimen, but he wasn't really her type. Her sister, she realized, would have found him ultimately attractive. But she was not her sister and never would be.

No, it was Vector's gentle touch she longed for. She suspected that Vector would have allowed her to bed him that night if she had told him it was what she wanted, but it would have changed the power dynamic between them. She had begun to see Vector more and more as her equal, and she wanted him to be willing emotional partner as well as a physical one. She wondered though if she wanted more than he could give. The memory of how he had kissed her that night on the bridge still tantalized her though. It had been tentative, but he had returned the kiss. She had sensed in it a promise of more. What she just imaging what she wanted to be true?

She left the room and hadn't even reached the elevator when Kaliyo found her.

"You'll never believe who's here," Kaliyo said. There was a kind of gleeful, yet not entirely wholesome, glint in her eye. "Bugboy has flown the nest, looking for you."

"Vector is here?" She couldn't hide the surprise from her voice. Kaliyo was grinning with smug satisfaction. Liadan realized that Kaliyo was hoping some drama would come of this. How little she knew Vector. Jealousy was not a recognizable concept to the Killiks, and she doubted that Vector understood it in the same way anymore either - if he even would have thought of her in that way in the first place.

She took the elevator down to the main level and found Vector easily. He was too well dressed to belong here. As she approached she saw that he was engaged in politely prying off a giggling twi'lek who was attempting to drape herself over him. A second twi'lek was on the other side, squirming against him provocatively.

"Just how many of you are in there?" The first one was asking him.

Vector spotted Liadan and nodded to her. "We're sorry," he said. "Kaliyo said you were busy but then insisted on getting you."

"That's Kaliyo," Liadan said dismissively. She glared at the two twi'leks. The second one took the hint and sashayed past her, pausing at her side. "What kind of alien is he anyway?" she asked.

Liadan gave her a cold smile. "Killik."

The first one blinked at Vector in confusion. "What?" she said. Liadan saw a spark of what might have been recognition in the second's eyes, however, and the twi'lek grabbed at her friend to lead her away, giving Liadan a strange look as she left.

"Let's leave this place," Liadan said.

They stepped out into the night and began to walk down the brightly lit streets.

"We were just out seeing the city tonight," Vector said. "We thought you might be here so we came in to give you something that we found." He reached into a pocket and handed her a small, ornate bottle with a cork in it.

"What is it?" Liadan asked.

"Membrosia," Vector said. "We were surprised to find it here. We suspect it was acquired through nefarious means, but it is genuine."

"You bought this from a vendor?" Membrosia was a sweet, alcoholic drink made by the Killiks and highly prized. Liadan had tried some on Alderaan and remembered it having strange properties.

"The vendor gave it to us at a significant discount," Vector said. Liadan wondered how he had achieved that. "Go ahead and open it now if you like," he said.

Liadan popped the cork and took a sip. Immediately her head cleared and her surroundings took on a sharper edge; the lights brighter, the sounds more acute. The warmth of it settled in her stomach and then quickly worked its way through her extremities. Oddly, it made her feel both calm and invigorated at the same time.

"Thank you very much, Vector. This is quite an unusual find."

"You are welcome, agent," Vector said.

Liadan gave him a discrete look, wondering at the meaning of this gift, wondering – yet again – at him. Just when she thought it was time to accept that nothing more than a valued friendship would ever be between them, he confused her with behavior that she could not interpret.

"We'll be going to Quesh next," she told him, eager now to change the subject.

"We've never been there," Vector said.

"It's an inhospitable place, but it's the source of many valuable adrenals, so it would be an important asset to the Empire's holdings." That wasn't the only reason they were going there. Ardun Kothe had told her to go there, and she also had plans of her own.

Liadan had discovered from her search of the Intelligence archives that the Minister of Intelligence himself had authorized the use of the mind control serum on her. It had been injected into her doing her routine medical exam during her thirty day hiatus on Dromund Kaas. She remembered the day exactly. It was the day Vector had asked her to go to the theater. She had been completely unaware.

Shortly before that, she had thwarted an insane and murderous plan by Darth Jadus, a member of the Dark Council. Her actions had saved millions of innocent lives, yet her repayment was this – these mental shackles. Apparently her success in manipulating a powerful Sith had caused a ripple of fear throughout the Dark Council. She took a malicious satisfaction in that at least. She must have shaken their confidence a great deal for them to fear her this much. The Intelligence Minister had agreed to it of course. He had always bowed to the power of the Sith. He had warned her to do the same, she remembered. She had been furious with him at first, but now her rage was directed mostly at the Sith. The Minister's fear – while weak-minded – was understandable. But the Sith were another matter. They represented every bit of chaos and meaningless despair that existed in this universe. Liadan valued order and stability. The Sith threatened everything she held dear. Her hatred of them was a deep and terrible thing. She knew that was traitorous thinking, but she no longer cared. The Empire was greater than just the Sith. The Empire is what she had sworn to protect.

She had found one piece of promising information. Her condition might be reversible. The chemicals she needed to create the reversal serum were only manufactured on Quesh. She would stop at nothing now to get them. Time was running short.

There was still one other thing that bothered her. Someone had given Ardun Kothe the keyword to activate her mind control programming. Who was the snitch? That was the greater question.

They reached the taxi terminal. "We leave for Quesh tommorrow. If there is anything you need while we are here, tomorrow morning will be your last chance."

"We are done here," Vector said.

"Good. I'm eager to move on." She felt the inklings of another headache coming on. Her journey to Quesh could not come soon enough.


	6. Chapter 6

Liadan was eager to leave Quesh behind. The air was hazardous here and so she and Vector had both had to get a shot of antidote before setting foot on the ground. She hoped that the chemicals in the vaccine wouldn't interact in any strange ways with the concoction she was about to add to her bloodstream. She had gone to great effort to get this Dimalium-6 and now she just had to get the serum mixed and ready. She was more nervous than she wanted to admit.

Vector was standing nearby, guarding her and the chemical workstation she had tracked down in this forsaken cave. They had had to dispatch a few Republics guarding the station, and she was concerned that more could come at any time. She pulled out her notes and hurriedly started the machine. Her hands were shaking and at one point she almost dropped the precious vial of Dimalium-6. She had to stop herself and take a few deeps breaths before continuing. When it was ready, she carefully primed the syringe. She stared for a moment at the strange greenish liquid she was about to inject into her arm. This tiny vial was her freedom and dignity.

The injection stung much more than she had expected it to. It felt like poison. For a moment she wondered if she'd somehow made a terrible mistake. She emptied the syringe into her vein with great effort and then bent over gasping. Her vision was blurring. Watcher X was there, standing over her. _You will be free of your programming. Give it time._

Time. Time! She was tired of waiting. She knew it wouldn't work immediately, but her impatience was becoming unbearable. How soon until the SIS was done with her? The one called Hunter seemed to take great pleasure in mocking her, especially when activating her programming. The insult of it all was becoming increasingly difficult to endure.

The pain was fading. She saw pebbles strewn across the ground and realized she was hunched over with her face almost touching the dirt. She sat up slowly.

Vector was standing over her, watching her. Months ago she might have interpreted his uncanny stare as mere interest or curiosity, but now she knew him well enough to recognize it for what it was: concern. At that moment she wanted to tell him everything – the programming, the serum, all of it. For the briefest second she dared to try, but when a sharp pain stabbed at her temples, she stopped. She remembered what he had told her. She would not fight, she would try to be patient.

Vector held out a hand and brought her to her feet. "Are you going to be all right?" he asked. He was glancing at the mouth of the cave and Liadan wondered how much time had passed. Only a few minutes, surely. But it was wise to be cautious. She was not was not in any condition to fight.

"Let's get out of here."

When they were safely back at the ship, a strange melancholy came over her. Taking action made her feel like she was accomplishing something, but now there was nothing left to do but wait. Her plan to free herself had gone well, yet she felt more helpless now than ever. If the serum didn't work – or didn't work fast enough – she was out of ideas.

oo0oo

They were lost. Huge pinnacles of ice rose up around them, and steep, jagged cliffs hemmed them in on all sides. There seemed to be no easy way out of this winding canyon. Once they spotted what appeared to be a small settlement high up on a distant ridge, but they could see no way of reaching it. The wind was less biting here, but the chill was still pervasive, and Vector knew that Cipher suffered more keenly from the cold than he did. If they were still wandering when darkness came they would most assuredly perish. Cipher had tried several times to call a transport shuttle to their location, but Vector guessed the high ice walls around them were blocking the signal. Cipher pushed them onward with grim determination.

Hoth was an inhospitable planet, but there were native species that lived here, and both the Republic and the Imperial military had founded outposts. The chiss manned many of them. The cold did not hinder them; in fact they barely seemed to notice it.

An Imperial officer by the name of Raina Temple had joined their crew recently and Temple was very eager to understand the new parameters of her job as an agent. Cipher had taken her on several, less critical missions, and had spent quite a few hours training her in new combat and field skills. As a result, Vector had not seen as much of Cipher lately. They were together now for the first time in days, yet Cipher was preoccupied and distant. They had been moving through this cavern for the better part of two hours, but they had spoken little.

After their strange interlude tracking own chemicals on Quesh, Vector had hoped that whatever was going on with Cipher would finally come to an end. Yet nothing had changed and she seemed more melancholy and driven than ever. Vector had determined that something had been done to Cipher's mind, something affecting her brain chemistry. Whatever it was it had a strong hold on her, and was possibly damaging her as well. While at first he had thought her unwilling, now he suspected that she was actually physically _unable_ to tell him what was wrong. Vector was worried. He longed more than ever to be able to be able to read her thoughts.

Just then his boot kicked something loose on the ground and it bounced away. He saw that it was a skull of a small creature. He looked around and realized that bones littered the ground all around them.

"Agent, we should turn back," he said. "We can't go this way."

"I know," she said. She was turning slowly, squinting from the blinding reflection of the daylight on the sheets of ice around them. "Let's try over there. The ground rises in that direction."

The frigid air dulled Vector's senses. He could barely scent anything on this planet and that made him uneasy. Perhaps that was why he only detected the wampa after it was already too late.

"Watch out!" Cipher cried.

He was already turning, staff in hand, but he wasn't fast enough. He saw the hulking white beast bearing down on him, so close - too close – and then he was knocked clear off his feet. He landed solidly in the snow, and for a moment was unable to breathe. He gasped for air and lurched to his feet. The wampa had its back to him now and was swinging wildly at Cipher. She threw up a shield and dived for cover.

He quickly tried to center himself, and then leapt at the beast, managing to land one decent strike that was enough to grab its attention. The wampa roared and spun around to face him. It was all teeth and claws and immediately he was forced onto the defensive. It pummeled him with barrage of savage blows that he was barely able to deflect. He was unprepared for the ferocity and strength of these attacks, and he despaired, knowing that he was outmatched.

A tiny dart appeared next to the wampa's right ear, one of Cipher's poison darts he knew, and the wampa shook its shaggy head for a moment in irritation. Vector used the opening to give the creature a solid swipe to the abdomen that left it bleeding. His victory was short-lived however. The wampa let out a terrible, chilling roar and struck out at him with a set of filthy claws. Vector barely moved away in time, but didn't see the next strike coming. He was backhanded by the beast's return swing and knocked to the ground. His ears rang.

Cipher directed a miniature droid in his direction and it hung in the air over him, spraying little clouds of kolto, which gave him enough strength to get to his feet again. The wampa raised its foot and stomped. The ground shook and Vector swayed on his feet. It swiped at him with a huge paw which he blocked with his staff, almost stumbling. He was entirely on the defensive now and he felt a thread of panic weaving its way into the back of his mind. This could not end well.

The creature got down on all fours, its mouth full of fangs suddenly at eye level. It roared and charged at him. Vector jumped backwards but the wampa was lightning fast, and in a blur of horror he saw his leg ripped open by a sound swipe from its claws. Blood ran hot down his leg.

He tried to block another blow, but his wounded leg gave out underneath him, and he fell on his side.

"Agent run!" he called.

A huge hairy fist descended towards him, briefly blocking out the sky. It was the last thing he saw.

oo0oo

He was so, so cold. He couldn't think of where he might be. Why was he so cold?

Someone was shaking him. He was too tired to care, and too numb. He felt himself dropping down again into unconsciousness.

"Wake up!" a voice said. He was shaken again, harder this time. "Wake _up_, damn it!"

He knew that voice. It was Cipher. "Oh, _please_ wake up…" she said. This time she sounded desperate and afraid. _Cipher!_ he thought. What was wrong?

He blinked up at the pale, white sky. Gingerly he turned his head.

Cipher was leaning over him. Her cheeks were damp, but she hurriedly wiped an arm across her face to hide it. "Thank the stars," she said. "Vector, you have to move. I got a signal and someone's coming, but they are having trouble finding us. They need a visual. We have to get on top of the ridge. It's not far."

It took him a moment to understand what she was saying. Then he remembered. Hoth. The wampa. He was hurt.

He sat up slowly. There was a huge tear along his trousers and the cloth was stiff with blood, but he could see that the wound was already cleaned and stitched. He sat still a moment, fighting a bit of vertigo, and then realized that there were long drag marks from his body leading down an icy path and away.

"You dragged us here?" He looked at her, trying to imagine her moving him such a distance and up a hill.

"You have no idea," she said. She sounded exhausted. "The wampa still could come back. Can you walk?"

Carefully, he got his feet. Everything hurt, but he was in one piece. He was alive.

"We're all right," he said. He heard his own surprise in his voice.

Climbing up the last bit of the ridge turned out to be a lesson in redefining pain tolerance, but he did it. They didn't have to wait long. He heard the little transport before he saw it. There was a beep and Cipher checked her holopad. "They've got us now, we're on their radar."

The shuttle landed and two men jumped out. They helped Vector into a seat and Cipher climbed in and huddled beside him.

After they had been safely speeding across the ice for a short while, Vector asked, "What happened?"

"The wampa wasn't hungry, apparently. I suspect we were just too close to its den. I ran and hid behind a rock and watched it roll you around a bit, but then it just wandered off."

"We were very lucky," he said.

"I know."

When they got back to the outpost, Vector was offered a kolto tank, but he declined. It was growing dark and they were a long ways from the space port. They had been forced to stay at some of the outposts before, but the accommodations were sparse and never warm enough. Nevertheless, they graciously accepted lodging in a tiny, cramped room with several empty bunks in it.

Cipher left to find some food. Vector gingerly undressed and took stock of his wounds. He would have a few bruises, but Cipher had done an admirable job patching him up as always. He was impressed and grateful. There had been little for the medical droid to do. His leg looked tender but he knew it would heal. He had a sizable lump on his head, which the droid had assured him was less severe than it felt. A minor concussion was likely but that was all. He had been unconscious for so long only because Cipher had given him a bit of sleep serum to stabilize him and keep him from waking while she cleaned his leg and stitched the wound.

Cipher returned with some unappetizing rations, which they both ate without complaint. They retired early.

Vector fell asleep immediately, but did not find peace. A heart-pounding nightmare awoke him a short time later. In it, he had been the one hiding behind the rock, while Cipher had lay motionless in the snow. There was too much blood on the ground, and the wampa was hovering over her. It opened its huge jaws and he realized that it was eating her. The horror of it threw him awake with a start.

He lay in the bottom bunk, staring into the darkness, breathing slowly and waiting for his heart to still. He heard Cipher stirring in the bunk above him. After a few moments of listening, he decided she was awake. She never slept well in these outposts. Even with some heat being pumped in, the air temperature in the buildings rarely got much above freezing. Some of the hallways even had piles of snow. He suspected that she was cold and miserable much of the time.

He wondered why she had never asked him to share a bunk with her. Instead she tried to hide her suffering. He hoped she was simply too proud to admit to something she perceived as a weakness and not that she was trying not to get close to him. Her stubbornness was accomplishing nothing. He decided it was time to do something about it.

"Agent? Are you still awake?"

There was a rustle from the bed above him. "Unfortunately," she muttered.

He was silent a moment, gauging how best to convince her. He decided to be direct. "We would have you join us. It would be warmer for us both." His offer had been sincere, but he realized that he also wanted to have her close, to erase the lingering shadow of his nightmare.

She was quiet for an eternity, but Vector guessed it was probably only a few seconds. "Thank you," she said. She slid off the bunk and appeared next to him. She climbed in and rolled so her body was up against his, with her head on his chest. He put both arms around her. She was so close, so real, and he could taste her scent in the air around him. He was thankful that they were here together, and both alive and well. He held her to him, feeling her ribs rise and fall, and keenly aware of the gentle flutter of her heart against his chest. He could have died today, he realized. He had almost left her alone out there in that icy wasteland.

He tried to imagine moving on someday, and returning to the nest. He realized that a part of him had always assumed that this arrangement would be temporary, and that eventually he would go back to the Killiks. He was a part of them as they were a part of him, and that would never change. But he was surprised to find that he could no longer picture himself doing so. He wanted to stay here, at Cipher's side, as an agent, as her friend…perhaps as more. He never wanted to leave her again, he decided, not to be transferred out of Intelligence, not to go back to the nest, and certainly not to death.

He loved her. In fact, he realized, he had probably loved her for a long time.

The thought spread across his mind, expanding into something huge and impossible to ignore. He was overcome with a feeling of urgency. He had taken a long time coming to this conclusion. Had she given up on him? He owed her an explanation. He needed to tell her how he felt. He should apologize.

He reached up a hand to touch her hair, but she did not stir. Her breathing was steady and slow; she was already sleeping. It would have to wait, but not for long. He needed to act soon.


	7. Chapter 7

An explosion rocked the air behind them, and Liadan felt the ground shake under her feet. She turned and watched the building flaming brightly while debris rained down on it. The spy Ardun Kothe was in that wreckage. Liadan would have died there in his place if the mind control had still held. Disobeying the order to stay behind and trapping Ardun Kothe there instead had been a thrill unlike any she had enjoyed before. She was free.

"It's over," she said. She turned to Vector, filled with such relief and joy that it spilled over into a smile that made her face ache. She threw her arms around him in a tight hug and then kissed him. He blinked at her in surprise. "I have so much to tell you," she said.

A few hours later, they were sitting comfortably on a ship headed to the Imperial fleet.

"Mind control," Vector was saying. "We had guessed something close." He shook his head. "You have our admiration for finding a way to break it. We only wish had been able to help you more."

"Vector," she said, "I couldn't have done it without you. You were my strength throughout all of this."

"Thank you, agent." He grew quiet. Liadan gazed out the window at the multitude of distant stars. Hunter had escaped – and had claimed to be working for another organization rather than the SIS. It was not over. But nothing could shake the peace she enjoyed in this moment. Her mind was whole again.

"Agent," Vector said suddenly, "we wanted to apologize to you."

Liadan looked at him, startled. "What for?" He leaned forward in his seat and looked at his hands. He actually looked nervous.

"We have been working on ourselves for some time, trying to become reacquainted with things we thought were lost. We are done repairing that part of ourselves now, and we have found our humanity."

"I'm not sure you ever really lost it, Vector," Liadan said.

"That may be so, but there is much that we had forgotten. While we were getting in touch with ourselves again, we ended up losing touch with you." He moved out of his seat across from her and sat down at her side. For a moment he was silent, but Liadan could see that he was struggling with something and still had more to say.

"We are sorry for being distant, and we don't want to be distant anymore," he said at last. He looked up at her.

"Vector, no apology is necessary, really." Liadan reached out and took one of his hands in hers. "If anything I should be the one asking for your pardon. We've both had a lot of struggles to deal with these past few months and I don't know if things could have been otherwise between us." Liadan tried to sound casual, but a hope had been kindled inside her. She was afraid to give it free rein.

"We also wanted to show you what we mean," Vector said. He lightly touched her cheek, leaned close, and then kissed her. It was gentle and hesitant, and he lingered a moment before pulling away.

Whatever Liadan had been expecting, it had not been this. She stared at him, rendered speechless. Then she gave him a smile. "You have no idea how long I've been wanting you to do that," she said. Vector gave a low laugh. It was a beautiful sound.

"Well then, we owe you another."

He kissed her again, deeper this time. Liadan surrendered to it, sliding her arms around him. She felt him run a hand down her side to settle at her hip, and his touch set a trail of goosebumps across her skin. She was left breathless.

"We look forward to rediscovering all of this with you," Vector said.

"So do I," she replied.

oo0oo

The next day, after communing with the hive for a long time, Vector went and found Cipher on the bridge of her ship. She was gazing at a navigation chart and she looked up and smiled at him as he came in. Vector regretted the favor he was about to ask, but he wanted to do this, _needed_ to do this, and he hoped she would understand later.

"Agent," he said, "we need to visit the Aebea nest for a short while. A few days at most."

"Have you made more progress on the Killik-Imperial alliance?" She supported him in this goal, like she supported him in so much else.

"Actually this is a more personal visit," he said. "We hate to ask, but it is important." He saw the disappointment flash across her face, and saw as well how quickly she tried to hide it.

"Of course, Vector. And besides," she added, "you should know by now that I could never refuse you."

"We will do our best to not abuse that power." He smiled at her.

She gave him a look that made his heart beat just a little bit faster. "Maybe you should try it sometime. I might not mind."

oo0oo

Shortly after Vector returned from his trip, he surprised her one day by coming to her with an unusual request. He wanted to speak to her privately, and asked her if they could be alone on the ship. Something about the seriousness in his tone suggested that she shouldn't question him. Vector disappeared into his quarters and remained there while she made arrangements for the other crew members to be sent off the ship on errands.

When at last the ship was quiet, Vector emerged and found her in her room. She heard his footsteps before she saw him.

"Vector?" she asked. He was standing in the doorway.

"I'm here, Agent," he said quietly, stepping into the room. Liadan barely had a moment to register that he had called himself "I" instead of "we" when she saw that he was looking back at her with pale green eyes.

When she had first met him, she had been disconcerted by his black, uncanny eyes, but more so by the fact it made him so hard to read. Now she saw him clearly, in the way a shadowed landscape becomes newly defined in the light of the sun. He stood before her, a man like any other, and Liadan saw into him, _through him_, it seemed, like a veil had been torn away. In his eyes she saw revealed an uncertainty, an eagerness, and a desire to _know_ and to be known. She was humbled by the enormity of this gift, for that was what it was surely, and the trust in her that he had shown by sharing this with her. She stared into those unfamiliar eyes with wonder, and reached out to touch his cheek, as if to reassure herself that he was still the Vector she knew. Words eluded her.

"The Aebea nest taught me to suppress the pheromonic bond," he said. "I can hold it for a little while."

"You have beautiful eyes, Vector. Thank you for letting me see you this way."

"This is a time for us to be together," he said, lightly touching her hair, "and I wanted it to be special. No crew members, no emergencies, no Killiks." He trailed his fingers down her cheek. Then his hand cupped her chin and guided her into a kiss.

If ever there were a time when Liadan could feel the electrical energy that Vector was often speaking of, it was now. She was sure that there was enough coursing through her body to light her whole star ship. She began pulling off his shirt and he helped her slip it over his head. But when she reached for his belt he took her wrists in his hands and gently pulled them away. She started to protest – her hunger for him was already burning through her like fire – but he pressed her fingers to his lips and caught her eyes in his.

"Wait," he said softly. "Let me see you." He began encircling her, sliding a hand up her arm and across her shoulder. She started to turn, but he held her shoulders and bent to touch his lips to her neck. A shiver overtook her as he left a line of light kisses from her shoulder to her ear. He began to undress her slowly, starting with her top. Liadan watched his pale hands move across her dusky red skin with fascination and growing desire. He continued circling around her, planting delicate kisses across her body as, layer by layer, he peeled her clothes away. She felt his lips in the crook of her arm, and again in the hollow behind her knee, and at the small of her back. He kissed one side of her hip and paused to look up at her.

"I didn't know if you would have other tattoos." He was tracing a finger along her hip, over a small heart, broken jaggedly in two. Liadan had had that tattoo added shortly after her sister had died. It not only represented her sadness at the loss, but held a piece of every torn, paradoxical feeling she had ever had concerning her sister. It was the broken love that should have been between them, the violent rending that had kept them ever at odds with each other, and the loss of that dream Liadan had once secretly harbored – that one day they would stand together as equals in their parents' eyes, and as equals to each other.

"Maybe I will tell you about that one someday," Liadan said. Vector kissed the broken heart and moved away, helping her to step out of the last of her clothes. Finally he stood back and just looked at her.

He considered her like one might contemplate an unfamiliar sculpture, his eyes moving slowly up her body. When his gaze finally met hers, she saw what she had ever longed to see in those once unreadable eyes: a need. A desire.

"You look different without your electric aura." His voice was thoughtful, while the faintest, sweetest smile played across his lips. "But still just as lovely." Liadan had never been called "lovely" before, and she searched his face a moment, seeing only sincerity there. To most humans, she was regarded as either repellant, even beastly, or as an exotic sexual prize. She had learned to use the latter to her advantage, preying on the human tendency to find attraction in that which is forbidden. Standing now with Vector, all clothes and pretenses cast aside, she was free to be who she was. Not an agent, not an alien. Just a woman. Just Liadan.

She slid into his arms, leaning into his touch as his fingertips whispered across her skin, exploring, caressing, drawing out whimpers which escaped from her of their own accord. The warmth of his body against hers, so alive and so real, ignited a heat that pooled its way through Liadan's limbs right down through her toes. When he brushed his lips against hers, feather light and so very soft, Liadan shyly quested into his mouth, eliciting the faintest groan from him when she touched her tongue to his.

"My fierce, beautiful agent," he murmured against her skin, his breath tickling against her collarbone. This time, when Liadan reached to undo his belt, he did not stop her.

Once among the soft sheets, Liadan pulled him to her, her eagerness taking control. As the delicious weight of him pressed against her, her mind recalled him as she had first known him, distant and strange, awkward in his speech and mannerisms, yet graceful and sure on the battlefield. In her most secret thoughts she had envisioned this moment, replayed it over and over, believing it to be an unachievable fantasy. Protector, friend, and now lover at last.

Liadan wanted nothing more than to make this moment last forever. She wanted to open herself to him, to have him be a part of her. She urged him to her, towards their own, more personal kind of joining.

She managed a breathless whisper. "I want you."

"Have me," he said against her ear, "all of me. I am yours." He was there at last, filling her, moving in her and through her. She had thought her desire could not hold back a moment longer, but he carried her slowly into an even greater passion, pushing her gently higher. She clung to him, urging him deeper, her body aching and yearning for more, always more. At last the pleasure came to an intensity that was almost like pain, tearing through her like a powerful crescendo, wringing a gasp from her throat. She cried out, and she thought she might have called his name.

"Yes, agent," Vector said, his voice hushed and urgent. Liadan opened her eyes to meet his green ones. "Liadan," she said. "Call me Liadan."

"Liadan," he breathed. "Liadan, yes." It was the sweetest sound she had ever heard. His own desire was reaching its culmination and he let out a low groan, shuddering against her. She held him tightly and stroked his hair.

After a moment, he rolled over beside her. They stayed that way for a long time, in each other's arms, a satiated silence between them. Then Vector spoke.

"I love you," he said quietly.

Liadan turned to look at him in surprise. He was gazing back at her with those pale green eyes. Her heart surged as she realized what she truly wanted to say in return.

"I love you too Vector." She marveled a bit at the sound of those words coming from her mouth. "I….I do." He smiled. It was a beautiful, pure smile that came from his eyes and lit his whole face. Liadan smiled back and kissed him.

"I'm glad we could have this," he said. "I cannot be unjoined for long or too often though. I would not survive."

"I understand," Liadan said. "I would not ask more of you than you could give. You don't have to do this in order for us to be together again…like we are now."

"Thank you…Liadan."

oo0oo

Vector stood in front of Liadan's mirror – he loved to think of her as Liadan now, even if he could only use her name when they were alone – and gave himself a last inspection. It was strange to see his own eyes looking back at him. He had been a different man the last time he had seen himself this way. More idealistic. Less aware. There had been so much awaiting him in his future that he never could have guessed. His mind was quiet with his connection to the hive temporarily suppressed, but he felt stymied, almost blind, without that extra-sensory awareness. A faint pressure was building in his head and he knew he was reaching the limits of how long he could remain unlinked.

He saw Liadan in the mirror coming up behind him. She stood on her toes to reach her arms around his shoulders and kissed him on the cheek. He turned around.

"Liadan." He enjoyed hearing his voice say her name. He smiled and touched one of the pendants hanging from the small horn above her temple. "I have always liked these. It was one of the first things I noticed about you." He ran a hand through the red curls behind her ear. "I don't want this to end, but it is time," he said. She stepped back and nodded.

"I will find time for us again, and soon," she said.

He bowed his head, and reached back into his consciousness. The hive was there, waiting for him. He lifted the barrier he'd carefully erected, and felt his renewed awareness come rushing in. He looked up to see Liadan's aura flaring brightly around her, a brilliant and beautiful crimson. Her scent spiced the air so strong he could taste it. He kissed her one last time, relishing the feel and taste of her. He suddenly wanted to experience the intimacy they'd just shared all over again. He pulled away reluctantly and saw that she was watching him curiously.

"We look forward to next time," he said.


	8. Chapter 8

After their afternoon alone, Liadan could not look at Vector without also seeing a glimpse of that earnest, green-eyed young man whom he had once been. She knew now how his quiet demeanor and subtle mannerisms hid a deep well of emotion, as well as longings that were only all too human. For the first time in many years, Liadan had shared a secret part of herself with someone else, and had accepted the secret of another without any ulterior motives. _Deep down, in spite of the obligations of this lonely life, we all just want to be __**known**__,_ she thought. That showing of the true self was the ultimate act of vulnerability and acceptance. Liadan had been moved by Vector's gesture, for it had been no small gift.

Liadan had never allowed herself to become so close to someone since joining Intelligence, and somewhere a little voice still chided her for it. If what they were doing was wrong, then why did she feel so strengthened by it? She suspected – no, she _knew_ – that only another agent could realistically share this kind of life. The secrets, the sacrifices; they were more than any normal relationship could bear. _I love him, _she thought_, strangeness and all._ She didn't know where this would lead, but she was willing to find out.

She also had to deal with the awakening of some of her more base instincts, which resulted in the very thought of Vector sending a shiver of pleasure through her. It was distracting and somewhat alarming to fall headlong into such vivid daydreams, but she felt helpless to stop them. She wondered if Vector suffered from the same affliction, or if he was capable of reading her mind. Her imaginings of their afternoon together often coincided with Vector walking closely by her soon after, his hand occasionally finding some reason to touch her or linger just a little too long. He called her "agent" in the presence of the crew, but once he had hesitated - deliberately she thought, for he was too astute to make such a mistake – and it felt like another kind of secret passing between them; or perhaps a message.

Liadan had work to occupy her in the meantime. They were on the planet Belsavis, planning to infiltrate the secret Republic prison there. Their progress had been frustratingly delayed however. First the ship droid had had a malfunction and began speaking nothing but unintelligible gibberish, which baffled them all until Vector eventually recognized it as some obscure tongue. Temple worked on the droid for hours, finally declaring the language chip hopelessly damaged. Language chips were special order only, and it took some finagling before Liadan's request for a new one was approved by Intelligence. In the meantime, Liadan was working on her contacts at the prison, getting the necessary blueprints and learning the layout. The facility was ancient and had been designed by the Rakata, and far too many wings were still unexplored and uncharted.

Intelligence planned to have custom-designed prison uniforms issued to the crew members who would be going under cover, uniforms that were identical in every way to the real thing, except for a few concealed pockets made to hold small weapons. Liadan chose both Kaliyo and Vector to infiltrate the prison with her, although she planned to send Kaliyo out on her own. The Ratattaki would fit in well and knew enough about the criminal underworld already that her disguise was virtually foolproof. Intelligence had Kaliyo and Liadan's measurements on file for the uniforms, but not Vector's. Liadan contacted the Diplomatic Service, but got mired in a maze of beaurocratic formalities just trying to get the information procured from Vector's old files and sent on to Intelligence. Finally, Liadan gave up and decided to take her own measurements. Since the ship's droid was out of commission, she seized the opportunity to do this herself, finally allowing for some brief moments alone with Vector behind closed doors.

Liadan only then began to understand the intensity of Vector's Joiner senses. Vector had been discrete and professional with her around the crew, but once they were alone, Liadan discovered that he had difficulty controlling his body's responses to her. Being close to him, touching him attentively (even if only lightly), left him flushed and trembling. She barely had time to finish measuring before he was pulling her up from her crouch on the floor to seize a kiss from her. She was ready to enjoy whatever small closeness they could share, but Vector appeared undone, almost to the point of distress, and Liadan realized then one reason why he had so carefully guarded his actions towards her in public view. She recalled him telling her during his first week on her ship that he had enjoyed savoring a ration bar – those tasteless things! – for two hours. She was suddenly rather intrigued by how this would play out once he had the opportunity to savor other, more intense, experiences.

When Vector left the room, Liadan saw that Kaliyo was waiting outside for her.

"So, I've got the perfect cover. Want to-" Kaliyo stopped mid-sentence to swivel her head to watch Vector leave. "What _exactly_ were you doing to that man in there? Don't look at me like that! I know that look on a man when I see it. Even Bugboy is not immune…apparently." She cocked an eyebrow at Liadan. "Taking measurements indeed. Sheesh. You want to measure me next?" Kaliyo gave her a lascivious grin.

Liadan was rather horrified to realize that she was blushing. Kaliyo crossed her arms and shook her head. "Right. For once our dear agent is actually speechless." She laughed and then pushed past Liadan into the conference room, where she pulled out a chair and sat backwards in it. "So, you want to hear my cover story or not?"

Liadan cleared her throat. "Yes, I do. Go, go on."

Kaliyo began to proudly recite a litany of various arms deals, explosions, and other dramatic stories involving the destruction of Republic property. Liadan suspected that this was less a "cover story" and more of a resume, but that didn't matter. The truth was much easier to convince than a lie. She had planned to do the same with her own cover. She was being imprisoned for espionage. Vector, she had decided, was to have been responsible for giving the Killiks some vital intel that had led to the deaths of five high-standing nobles on Alderaan. Nevermind that the Killiks involved in that massacre some years back had been from a totally different nest than Vector's. To most people all the Killiks were the same.

Kaliyo swung herself out of the chair and made for the door. She stopped and turned before exiting.

"Agent, you know….Listen, I won't give you a hard time anymore about Bug-" she caught herself, "…about Vector. Ok? It's just…" she sighed. "Well, we could have had a good thing going. You and me. Taking on the galaxy. I just don't get what you see in him."

Liadan realized that this was as close to an apology as she was likely to ever hear from Kaliyo. "Does that mean that you are going to at least try to get along with Vector now?"

Kaliyo made a face. "Well, I wouldn't go _that_ far." She rolled her eyes and slipped out the door. Liadan suppressed smile.

oo0oo

Dr. Lokin had asked to speak with Liadan in private. So, when Liadan entered his lab on the ship, she was surprised to find Vector there instead. Vector and Dr. Lokin frequently spent time together, discussing everything from the Kass City Opera to the merits of dianogan tea. Vector, ever eager for new knowledge, had also allowed Dr. Lokin to run a few tests on him in the hopes of learning something about his Joiner-enhanced senses. Rarely though, did Liadan find Vector alone in Lokin's lab.

He was sitting at a desk, painstakingly dipping something into a small jar in front of him. Liadan stepped in for a closer look.

"Be careful, agent," Vector said. "We are working with a lethal poison." Liadan saw that he was in the process of coating the edge of a knife.

"Where did you get the poison?"

"The nest gave it to us." He turned to give her his full attention. "We cannot enter the prison with our staff of course, so we needed something else, something we can conceal. We are not the knife fighter you are, but we could manage stabbing something if necessary. We need only to draw blood for the poison to work, and it acts quickly."

"Wise thinking, Vector." Liadan watched him work for a moment and then decided to just check back for Lokin later. As she reached the door, Vector spoke again.

"Agent?" He sounded quiet and a bit unsure of himself, which immediately got Liadan's attention. "We know what Dr. Lokin wanted to discuss with you."

Liadan turned around, and seeing the seriousness in Vector's face, she decided to close the door. She pulled up a chair next to him. "Is this about the break-in to one of Lokin's safe houses?" One of Dr. Lokin's labs had recently been destroyed in a suspicious explosion, and several dead assassins were discovered among the rubble. Lokin had been intensely researching the incident ever since. Liadan was left wondering why someone wanted him dead.

"Yes," Vector said. "The assailants were from a secret Science Bureau division known as Project Protean."

"Lokin told you this?"

"Yes." Vector paused, carefully sheathing the knife. "Lokin has gained access to some of their files which show that they've been conducting experiments on human-alien hybrids. Lokin found our name listed as one of the 'science experiments.'"

Liadan sat back in her chair, too stunned for a moment to speak. "I don't understand…have you ever worked with these people?"

"We had never heard of them until recently. It seems," Vector said slowly, "that the scientists at Project Protean arranged for our meeting with the Oroboro nest, so that they could study the Joining. The Diplomatic Service granted their request and reassigned us."

"The Diplomatic Service agreed to do this?"

"We understand that there were favors owed and some bribery involved. We were a convenient subject – we specialized in first contact missions and we were already serving on Alderaan."

"I'm sorry Vector." It was all Liadan could think of so say at the moment. It felt immensely inadequate. "What did they expect to learn from you? Do they want to create an army of Joiners or something?"

"We don't know," Vector said, "but the Joining enhanced us and made us a capable fighter. We think it's a possibility."

"That's not a pleasant thought."

Vector nodded, looking solemn. He put away the tiny bottle of poison in one of Lokin's refrigerated units and the door locked automatically when he closed it. "We thought we should be the one to tell you," he said. He stood in the center of the room, lost in thought for a moment. "We still need some time to think about this. Excuse us while we commune with the nest."

Liadan nodded and watched him go. His reaction had been restrained as always, but she knew that this had been no easy revelation. She hesitated, wanting to go after him, but knowing that her presence would not be welcome now. Just then Dr. Lokin appeared in the doorway.

"Ah! Agent, how good to see you here." He strode into the lab, smiling pleasantly. His smile faded when he saw Liadan's expression. "So, Vector has told you about Project Protean." Dr. Lokin turned around and hit the door switch behind him. It slid closed, latching with a quiet click.

"Just what is your connection to this agency, Doctor?" Liadan asked.

"Their research shares some elements in common with my studies on the rakghoul virus. I expect that I have become victim of professional rivalry." Dr. Lokin shrugged and looked apologetic.

"That's a pretty serious rivalry if they are trying to eliminate the competition for good."

"Scientists can be rather possessive about their work, I'm afraid." Lokin was smiling disarmingly at her, but Liadan wasn't convinced that she was hearing the entire story. However, she had known when signing him onto her crew that he had his share of secrets – that went with the territory in this job – so she decided that disputes between science factions was not her concern.

"In any case," Dr. Lokin continued, "Project Protean can't be allowed to continue. They are conducting experiments on Joiners and Killiks as we speak. For Vector's sake as well as mine, I plan to end them."

"Do what you have to do," Liadan said.

Lokin nodded. "Thank you, agent." He paused. "And if you don't mind me saying, Vector knows who he is. Just give him time to be sure of it."

Liadan nodded. She understood. She knew what it felt like to be betrayed by her own people. She knew only too well.

oo0oo

Vector needed to find solace in the hive. He wanted privacy and silence. He went straight to the crew quarters, but Ensign Temple was there, and he hesitated in the doorway. There must have been something showing in his demeanor, because she immediately made some mumbled excuse to go work on the droid's language chip and then quickly left him alone. He was relieved. He knelt on his bunk and took a few slow breaths. He left the world behind him like a prisoner casting off chains and set his mind to roam free. He was swept up immediately in the great shared consciousness of the hivemind. He floated aimlessly for a time, aware of the minds of countless others reaching out to him in concern, sensing his distress, but he sent back assurances until they abated. Slowly, calm returned to him.

At last he gently reached out and touched his own memories. He sorted through them carefully, lightly recalling each one, further and further back until he found what he sought. He remembered.

_He walks away from the meeting feeling excited and hopeful with his new assignment. No one has ever tried to contact the Killiks; an alliance with them would be one for the history books. Vector can't wait to study the newly downloaded files on his holopad to learn more about them._

_ …_

_ It is the night before he is scheduled to depart. A fellow diplomat, a woman with dark brown eyes and an infectious laugh, is asking him if he is nervous. Isn't he afraid of being absorbed into their hivemind? He assures her that he will be no prisoner, so why should he share a fate reserved for their captives? He is approaching them willingly after all, and he's been supplied with gifts. She shakes her head and tells him he is brave, and offers to take him out for a drink when he comes back. He tells her to count on it._

…

_ Killiks are incapable of speaking Basic, so Vector talks to the Joiners. They welcome him immediately, offering him membrosia to drink and some strange gel to eat. They give him a place to sleep and explain to him the details of Killik social organization. Vector can't wait to write it all down in his next report. He's already learned more than he had hoped._

…

_ Still no word from the Diplomatic Service. He will stay a bit longer then. He sends reports daily, knowing they must be pleased with his progress, but he's disappointed at the lack of feedback._

_ …_

_ It's peaceful in the nest and the Joiners are nothing like he expected. They are well treated and well cared for. He's sleeping better here than he has in years. His dreams are beautiful and full of strange colors. The worries of the world seem unimportant. He awaits the summons from the Diplomatic Service every day, but it secretly relieved when none comes. He wouldn't mind staying here a bit longer. There is still so much to learn._

_ …_

_ A Killik spoke to him today. She spoke in body language and scents and somehow, in his mind as well. The research said nothing about this! It is surely a breakthrough._

_ …_

_ Vector is elated. He is not merely a guest, he is being taken in, and treated like one of the hive. His world is expanding; the universe beckons. There are patterns everywhere, and it is all tied together like the beautiful refrain of a song. Everything – the trees, the creatures of the air, even the tiniest, most unassuming insect, is filled with brilliant sparks of light. How much of the world he has been missing! He hears the Killiks now clearly. "Welcome child," they say. So many voices, so many minds. "You are one with the Oroboro." He is overjoyed. He writes his latest report, informing his superiors that he has no plans to return anytime soon. He is home._

Except, Vector thought, as he released the last memory and let it fade away, the Diplomatic Service never expected him to return. They sent him into the rancor's den, knowing full well that his career was as good as over. He knew now that he Joining was simply a bi-product of exposure to Killik pheromones. Had his superiors known this as well? They had needed only to leave him there and wait for the inevitable. They cared nothing for an alliance; cared nothing for the knowledge he'd been gathering and eagerly sending back. Vector was stunned now at the depth of his own ignorance.

Yet they _had_ called him back. Once. Vector studied that memory, seeing it now with a sinister cast. He had been sent to the med bay for a "routine" exam. No droid this time; two real doctors had been there to see him. He had told them that he couldn't stay long and they had just nodded and taken notes. He had thought them curious, nothing more. But of course they were sending test results to Project Protean.

Vector remembered also how he had unexpectedly crossed paths with the pretty young woman who owed him a drink. She had been terrified of him; Vector could smell it on her like a bitter cloud. It was the first time he had been given an indication of how his appearance would be regarded by outsiders. It had made him even more convinced that he belonged now with the hive. The human world was no longer his world, and he had left it behind with barely a thought.

Now he knew. He had been sorely used and betrayed. He saw himself again in his memory, stepping off the taxi and waving off his escorts. He had approached the nest alone.

Vector reviewed this last memory in his mind for a time, holding it gently like the fragile thing it was. It had been the last time that he was fully human. He had never missed it; had never mourned. That man was gone. Suddenly Vector shut his eyes tight and pushed the memory away. Slowly he returned to his surroundings, becoming gradually aware of the cramp in his legs. He realized he was not alone.

Liadan was standing in the room.

"Vector," she said. Her voice was gentle. She came and stood at the edge of the bed, then reached out a thumb and touched his cheek. He felt a wetness across his cheek where she had touched him, and for a moment he was confused. He was not used such evidence of his own emotions. He brushed a hand across his eyes and took a breath.

"We are all right."

"You've been in here for hours," she said. "I didn't want to disturb you, but it was getting late."

Vector came to his feet and rubbed his legs. "We suppose Ensign Temple has been waiting too."

"She's afraid to bother you," Liadan said and she grinned. Her smile faded quickly. "I know Lokin's discovery must not have been easy for you." She held up a hand when he tried to speak. "You don't have to talk about it now. I just thought…I just wanted to check on you….and…" Her voice trailed away. Vector felt her aura shift as the edges became softer, more inviting, beckoning to him. Until meeting Liadan, he had had little experience with attraction pheromones being aimed at him, but he recognized it now. He had seen her use these charms on unsuspecting marks, and had initially been amused that he could sense what was coming when they could not. Liadan was always confident and aggressive with these others when it suited their mission, but when it came to him, she somehow got tongue-tied and nervous. He was secretly flattered.

Vector realized he was smiling at her. She returned his smile, which seemed to calm her a bit, and then took a deep breath and tried again. "You are welcome to stay with me tonight."

"We would like that."

Her smile could have warmed the sun. Vector followed her across the ship, past the med bay where Lokin was working late, and to the door to her room. Vector knew that one pair of eyes saw them, but Liadan either didn't notice or didn't care. She unlocked the door, let him step inside, and then locked it again behind them.

Vector stood in her room and wondered what was expected of him. He watched her as she puttered about, tidying up and then neatly turning down the covers on the bed. Then, with no fanfare at all, she pulled off her clothes. She slid into an oversized shirt and then sat at the edge of the bed.

She looked at him. "Are you tired?"

"No," he said truthfully. He thought about going to her, but held back. She had told him that she would accept intimacy with him as a Joiner, but he was afraid to assume too much. He stood there, realizing that he was prolonging this moment of awkwardness, but not knowing how to make it stop.

"Oh Vector." Her smile was kind. She got up and came and stood in front of him, so close that the edges of her aura overapped with his. "You can start by taking off this." She reached for the buttons on his shirt and began to deftly undo them. Then she slid his shirt off his shoulders, and tugged loose his arms, leaving him in his undershirt. "That's better." She ran a finger along the hem of his remaining undershirt, caressing his stomach and making it flutter. "Then you can take off this." She pulled it over his head and helped him out of it.

She ran her hands over his bare skin and Vector watched, mesmerized, as the colors in his aura swirled about her hands like ripples over water. She pressed against him and left a trail of kisses along his chest. Vector's aura, normally a soft shade of blue, deepened a shade and melded with hers, enveloping them both in a rich, lively violet. He put his arms lightly around her, thinking that he could watch this beautiful interplay for hours if she let him. He could taste her growing desire sweetening the air. He lifted her head towards him to touch his lips to hers.

Her essence flooded his senses and for a moment he was left dazzled and unsteady. He sucked in a breath.

"Is…is this ok?" She asked. She took one step back and Vector felt his own need and desire flaring as she moved away. He gripped her shoulders and kissed her again before she could further create this unwanted gulf between them.

"Yes," he said when at last they broke apart. "This is good. It is just…overwhelming." He wanted to experience her in every way his Joiner senses allowed; wanted to know her in full; wanted to lose himself in her.

He was a lucky man. She took things slowly, letting him take his time as he explored her, touched her and tasted her. It wasn't long before he was lost in a storm of sensation. He felt more alive than ever he could recall, and he cherished the sight of her laid out beneath him, so perfect and vulnerable and ready to receive him. Together they moved to the rhythm of the universe, joining their songs to create an entrancing new melody. She writhed against him, sighing and clinging to him as she shuddered, and he held her close until the shaking passed, riding his own wave of passion to its crest soon after. When he lifted his head at last to look at her, her eyes were full and bright and lit by an inner glow. She brushed her fingertips against his cheek and her touch left faint, delicate sparks against his skin. He felt a moment of sadness knowing that she would ever be able to see them. He kissed her and slid his body next to hers. She wiggled against him, fitting herself along his body and then she let out a contented sigh. He fell asleep with his face buried against her hair, a few of her curls tickling his nose, and the beat of her heart against his palm of his hand.

oo0oo

The last time Vector had stayed the night had been long ago when he had caught Liadan crying on the ship's bridge. He had left early the next morning before the other crew members would awaken. This time, when Liadan woke, she was pleased to see Vector still sleeping at her side. He was sprawled on his stomach, still naked under the sheets, his dark hair tousled against the pillow and his face serene. Liadan watched his chest rise and fall against the bed for some time.

She stretched and he stirred beside her.

"Good morning handsome," she said. He blinked at her and smiled.

"It is a good morning indeed."

They exchanged a few idle pleasantries before the conversation took a serious turn.

"Agent, we..." he corrected himself and started again. "Liadan, we have a favor to ask."

"What is it, Vector?" Liadan suspected that this request was not going to be an easy one for her grant, whatever it was.

"We want to go with Dr. Lokin when he finds the Project Protean Headquarters," Vector said. "We want to recover our data and stop any experiments they may be conducting using it."

Liadan was silent. She couldn't deny him this, but she also didn't like the idea of him knowingly walking into such danger.

"Of course. I understand," she said. She wondered if he could hear the hesitation in her voice.

"Dr. Lokin wants to leave as soon as he extracts the location coordinates, so that we will have the element of surprise. is His search of their files left behind some kind of electronic signature, so he fears that they may suspect an intrusion when someone finally notices."

"Be careful," Liadan said. "Those people can't be trusted and I don't think Dr. Lokin is revealing his true motives either, as much as I would like to think that he is as morally responsible as he claims."

"We don't entirely trust him, either," Vector admitted, and Liadan was relieved to hear it. "But right now, we don't think it matters."

Liadan sorted through her thoughts, wanting to ask so much more, but also not wanting to pry into a subject that might still be raw. "Did you ever suspect anything like this was happening when you left to meet the Killiks?"

"We never suspected at the time," Vector said. "But we are not surprised now." He shook his head, seemingly lost in thought a moment, and then he sighed, sounding weary. "We think we are who we are," he said at last. "But we prefer not to be someone else's puppet."

"Yet, through all this, your loyalty to the Empire remains true."

"It does," Vector said. "We believe in what the Empire stands for as a whole. Unity. Stability. Strong leadership. That hasn't changed."

"Before…" Liadan paused, uncertain of how to ask the next question. "Before you became a Joiner, what would you have thought if you had known what awaited you?"

Vector was quiet a long time.

Liadan didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "Most people fear it - the loss of self, of autonomy. When I was under the power of the keyword, the thought that my mind was not my own was terrifying."

"There is a difference between what you suffered, and what a Joiner experiences," Vector said. "We have never felt coerced or directed to act against our will. We simply share a common purpose now with the nest. And we have gained much in return. The mind control for you was a loss, with nothing gained."

A knock on the door startled both of them. Kaliyo's voice called through the metal door. "Hey! Sleepy heads! Our uniforms have arrived!"

Liadan glanced at Vector, lying naked next to her. "So much for being discrete about your presence in my room I guess." Vector just smiled and caught her in a kiss before she could roll out of bed.


	9. Chapter 9

They were getting closer to finding out what the Republic was hiding in Megasecurity Ward 23. Hunter had led her here; the former SIS agent continued to playing a teasing game of catch-and-run with her, though whether he was leading her towards the answers she sought or her doom Liadan couldn't tell. The security system put in place to guard the secret ward also stalked them. It was a sentient force, which called itself SCORPIO. It spoke to them over the intercoms in a cold, electronic female voice, threatening them with a painful death should their efforts succeed. Even those who would be her allies in this venture kept her ever on edge, as she carefully cultivated delicate alliances with a small group of prisoners who had been pre-selected by Intelligence for their skills. She did not tell them her true allegiance, but promised them credits and intended to give them their freedom if they aided her in breaching the ward. They too regarded her with mistrust.

The Republic's prison was a scandal that had yet to break public. The prisoners had rioted and many were running free, creating their own vicious gangs and fighting territory wars, while the prison officials bumbled about uselessly, clearly losing the battle. Liadan wanted to get out of here fast before she could become trapped in a warzone.

She had gradually been gathering the supplies they would need to stage the ultimate break-in. With each success, Liadan hoped the outlaws would grow to trust her skills and her motives. They were wary of Vector of well, she knew, rarely speaking to him directly and often refusing to even acknowledge him. They did respect his ability to fight however. Vector had found himself a hollow metal pipe, which he had fastened to a make-shift sling so he could wear it on his back. One of the outlaws had scoffed when Vector had refused to arm himself with one of the guns they had acquired and instead chose to rely on his homemade staff. Vector had hefted the staff in his hands, testing its weight and balance, and had then proceeded to move through a series of combat forms with it, showcasing his usual grace and agility. "Suit yourself," the outlaw had declared, but Liadan took note that he, and the others, gave Vector a wide berth after that, and did not question him again.

Liadan had harbored some doubts at first as to Vector's ability to play the role of a prisoner. His personality – normally so cultured and polite – was for once a liability, and his clean cut appearance and mannerisms, not to mention his accent, marked him as an upper class Imperial. However, she shouldn't have worried, because as usual, Vector surprised her. His cover as a minor Alderaanian noble was believable and easy for him to assume. But he needed to look like a man who'd been subjected to harsh prison conditions for months, or even years, so she forbade him from shaving for two days prior to their arrival and instructed him to leave his hair loose and uncombed.

When the time came to give her crew a final inspection, Liadan approached the task with a critical eye. Vector emerged from his quarters wearing the prison uniform Intelligence had made for him, and stood before her, waiting her judgment. Kaliyo had been the first one to speak.

"Well, there's a shocker," she said. "I wouldn't call you a thug or anything, but you could pass for a half-crazy starved artist."

Vector's mouth quirked in a faint smile and he gave Kaliyo a nod. Then he looked at Liadan. "And you, agent? What are your thoughts?"

Vector looked back at her with those infinitely black eyes, which were partially obscured by the tousled strands of hair that fell across his forehead. His face was shadowed by the faint beginnings of a beard, somehow obscuring his normal paleness and giving him a darker, more brooding look. In the uniform, which had been artificially distressed to make it look already worn-in, his tall frame appeared wiry and almost gaunt. He looked like a man who had ceased to care about his fate in the world. He looked like a man made desperate by circumstance.

"You look….transformed," she finally said. "It's good. It works."

And so Liadan had entered this mission with confidence. They were moments away from exploring an abandoned medical lab now, trying to secure some chemicals, adrenals and other supplies needed for their break-in. Their infiltration into the lab had gone well. Perhaps Liadan should have realized then that it had been too easy, but she had been paying particular attention to keeping tabs on her dangerous new allies, and had not made the connection. They had barely been there long enough to get their bearings when the security system "awakened" – that's the only way Liadan could adequately describe a system which spoke to them regularly – and began gloating over its triumph.

"Stay sharp! Keep your weapons drawn," Liadan instructed everyone. They all instinctively began to group with their backs together in a circle. The security voice only thanked them for grouping up and making an easier target.

"These labs were used to create drugs designed to trigger aggressive instincts," SCORPIO calmly told them. "Do you want a demonstration?" A hissing noise began all around them and Liadan looked around, spotting several vents along the floor. A sickly green gas was seeping out of them, quickly covering the room in a suffocating cloud. There was no time to get away.

"Die!" one of the outlaws shouted, and he started to pull his gun on the others. Liadan heard a choking sound and spun around to see Vector's hands flying to his head.

"The Night Herald!" His voice sounded strangled and distressed. '"It screams in our mind!"

Liadan didn't have time to consider the strange fact that she alone was unaffected. With terrifying clarity she knew that Vector – her protector – was about to become her enemy. She ducked down and lunged for his legs, disrupting his balance and knocking him up and over her shoulder. She had been taught how to incapacitate someone larger than herself in the academy, and the moves came back to her now that she needed them. She tapped her wrist band and shot him with a tranquilizer dart before he could get up. He twitched once and then fell still.

She looked up to see one of the outlaws coming towards her with the relentlessness of an oncoming speeder, his face an angry grimace. She shot him with a dart as well. He had time to swing drunkenly at her before his knees gave out and he toppled to the ground. Liadan did the same to all the others, stopping them before they could hurt each other or turn on her next. At last the cloud of gas cleared and Liadan stood in the center of the room, the prone bodies of her comrades around her. SCORPIO broke the silence.

"You are immune to mind control technologies," the voice mused, "yet those defenses should be unavailable to the wider galaxy. Interesting."

There was a faint click as the security system shut off the intercom.

oo0oo

Liadan was exuding a confidence and exhilaration that Vector hadn't seen in her in weeks. They had breached Megasecurity Ward 23 and neutralized SCORPIO, who had ended up being a mobile droid. Even now, the droid was being transported in a carefully packed crate to be loaded onto the ship. Liadan had defeated the droid's effort to stop her and had fitted it with a restraining bolt before deactivating it and claiming it as her own.

They had also stumbled upon a stunning find in that long abandoned ward – men and women trapped in artificial hibernation for almost a millennia, who claimed to be members of a galactic conspiracy called the Star Cabal. Liadan had listened to their story with rapt interest, Vector had noticed. Indeed, their purpose was a compelling one, and perhaps at one time, even noble. They aimed to be manipulating galactic events with the goal of minimizing the violence and conflict between Jedi and Sith. But now the organization was corrupt and the current members did little else but clamber for power.

Hunter had led them here and had claimed to be a member. Did he want to stop the corruption? Did he want Liadan to join them? Vector didn't understand his motives and didn't trust him. For one thing, his aura was…wrong. It wavered strangely, and felt to Vector like a circuit that had been overloaded, straining with more power than it could rightfully contain. Most of all, however, Hunter had taken sadistic pleasure in Liadan's mind control and even now treated her with barely contained amusement, as if this whole journey was a game. Vector didn't like it.

Liadan was elated at their find, however, and was eager to get back on the trail. They walked now up an embankment, away from the prison buildings, and away from prying eyes. Kaliyo had buried some civilian clothes for them somewhere under the giant roots of one of Belsavis's trees, and there they would get rid of their prison uniforms before heading back to the spaceport. There was a bounce in Liadan's step and her eyes sparkled with excitement and the thrill of discovery. "We will find Hunter yet and track him to his lair," she had said, and her smile had been a predatory one.

Vector wanted to share in her excitement, but his mind was preoccupied by the events of the previous day. He was disturbed at the ease in which that aerosol gas has taken over his mind. The gas had felt like claws raking through his skull, leaving him bruised and wary, and at that moment everything that wasn't of the nest was a threat. He could have compromised their mission, not to mention Liadan's safety. He had expected the collective power of the hive mind to be stronger in resisting such effects and was disappointed that he had succumbed as easily as the others. Perhaps, he admitted begrudgingly, he was putting too much confidence in the changes being Dawn Herald had wrought in him. Maybe he had needed that humble reminder.

Liadan had not brought up the incident, but Vector did not want to leave it hanging unspoken. "Agent," he said. He knew they were alone, but he felt that using her real name implied a trust that he didn't feel worthy of at the moment. "We wanted to apologize for what happened in the medical lab yesterday."

"You didn't do anything wrong," she said. "I was the one who knocked _you_ out, remember?" She gave him a grin, and while he appreciated her attempts to lighten the mood, he was still not at peace with it.

"We are here as your partner and protector, but in that we failed."

"You're not invincible. You are, after all, mostly human." Her tone was gentle, but Vector still winced, feeling like he'd been rebuked in some way. Liadan must have noticed because she spun around suddenly, and planted herself firmly in his path.

"Listen," she said. "Even if you were a Killik, a full-blooded straight-up Killik, ok? You still could have been affected. The only reason that I wasn't was from taking the serum that broke the mind control technology. At least, that has to be it, because even SCORPIO acted surprised."

Perhaps it was a simple matter of biology, Vector thought. He was, in the end, subject to most human restrictions.

"Now," Liadan continued, her tone turning bemused, "don't tell me that you are suffering from a bruised male ego. I did take you down pretty quickly, didn't I?" She nudged him in the ribs and grinned.

"We…" he smiled, "we were impressed, yes."

"You're still invaluable to me, you know. Nothing changes that."

"Thank you ag-, Liadan."

"Can you tell me something, though?" Liadan asked. "What is the Night Herald?"

Vector caught himself rubbing his temple at the mention of that memory. "The Night Herald is a mythical figure among the Killiks." He paused, feeling oddly uncomfortable talking about this, although he wasn't quite sure exactly why. "He is a bringer of death. The Dawn Herald protects and defends; the Night Herald is chaos." And madness, he added to himself. For the first time he thought he had an inkling of what Liadan had felt when her mind had been compromised.

"I see," Liadan said. Vector could see that she was done with the topic. She turned and started taking swift strides up the side of a hill. He just stood there a moment, watching her, until she beckoned to him and disappeared over the crest of the rise.

Vector reached the top of the hill and stopped to take a deep breath of the sweet, fragrant air. Belsavis was a beautiful planet, but it was a paradox. There were lush jungles surrounding the prison buildings, and these were hemmed in by enormous canyon walls, beyond which lay a totally different world of ice and frigid winds. Here in this valley, the air was humid and Vector's senses were filled with the smell of rich earth and green, living things. The trees dwarfed them, their roots rising and plunging from the earth, as if swimming through the grasses in the way a sea creature dives through ocean waves. Everything was so vibrant and alive that Vector couldn't help but feel his mood improving.

"Here is the spot," Vector said, recognizing the mark Kaliyo had left on the trunk of one of the nearby trees. Liadan stepped up beside him. "Vector," she said, and she caught his arm before he could walk further. Her voice had changed and was now silky and soft. There was a gleam in her eyes. "You've been driving me crazy all day."

Vector turned to her. Her eyes moved over him with a bold intensity, and he suddenly felt a bit self-conscious under her scrutiny. He smiled at her. "We seem to have strange effects on people," he said, "but we weren't aware that 'crazy' was one of them."

"Let me show you what I mean then," she said, and before he knew what was happening, she was pulling him roughly underneath the canopy of one of the giant tree roots. She leaned into him and kissed him, a surprisingly passionate kiss. He was caught off guard, and he stumbled back against the tree trunk. He got his bearings quickly though, and as she pulled away from the kiss, he slid his hands around her waist, to keep her close.

"I want to do more than kiss you," she told him.

"You've definitely forgiven us then, we take it."

She laughed and ran her hands down his shoulders and across his chest. Her aura was flickering around her in tantalizing patterns and it played against his skin like the soft brush of silk. All his senses came alive within him, hungry for more. The pheromones in her scent had taken on a tangy edge, he noticed, indicating that she desired him indeed. He drank her in with pleasure, wanting to lose himself in the intoxicating essence of her all around him.

He dipped his head and placed his lips against her neck. He could feel her pulse there quickening and it further stirred something inside him. He moved his hands slowly over the curve of her hips, as he gently pulled her tighter against him.

"Mmmm," she said. Her breath tickled his ear. Vector knew his own desire was awakening and he felt dizzy from the power of it.

She was pulling up his shirt and unfastening his belt. Her touch against the bare skin of his stomach made him shiver. Her hand reached lower and rubbed him through the fabric of his clothes, and his body responded to her touch immediately, swelling and pressing against her palm. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, feeling himself growing harder still. She moved close to his ear again, while rubbing him slowly with her hand.

"I want to pleasure you, Vector," she whispered to him.

He let out a breath. It was a struggle to speak. "Here?" he said at last. He knew even as he said it though that here would be just fine. She laughed and moved down toward his waist again. He'd been pleasured by other women in the past, but never had it felt quite like this, and never had he experienced what it would be like since his Joining. He let out a stifled groan and his head fell back to bump against the trunk behind him, but he barely noticed. It was almost too much. He wondered if it were possible to go mad.

"Agent," he gasped. He wanted to beg her to give him his release; he wanted to beg her to never stop. He tried to speak again, but nothing coherent came out.

At last he was overtaken by the swells of a powerful climax. For a moment his vision was awash with sparks of color, and then he was left spent and shaking against the trunk.

Liadan stood up beside him and curled her arms around his neck.

"Vector," she said softly, her lips brushing against his jawline, "You are beautiful, just as you are."

He held her close until his heart gradually slowed to a more normal rhythm.

"Sweet Liadan," he managed at last. "We have never known anyone like you."

oo0oo

Entering the ship, Liadan heard boisterous laughter. Seems she and Vector hadn't been the only ones celebrating. In the common room, Liadan found Kaliyo and Ensign Temple sitting around a table. Temple was slumped in her chair and giggling like a school girl, while Kaliyo was sitting with her feet up on the table and was in the midst of knocking back a shot glass.

"Hey agent," Kaliyo said. "Come join us."

"If you are celebrating, then I take it your part of the mission went well too?" Liadan folded her arms across her chest.

"Didn't I tell you it would be a cinch? Of course I got it. Here." Kaliyo slid a data pad across the table. I already sent you everything."

Temple sat up and squinted at Liadan. "I didn't know you were so…red," she said. She waved an arm. "Just, redder than red. Really red. Really rather red. Really rather riotously red!" She burst into giggles.

"You sure did a number on her, Kaliyo."

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "How was I supposed to know that she'd be so green?"

Temple leaned onto the table with her head in her arms. Her muffled voice could just be heard. "Too many voices. All whispering at once…Shhhh…quiet. I can't hear them."

"What in the galaxy did you give her, anyway?" Liadan stepped closer to the table.

"Just…whatever I found in the cabinet." Kaliyo shrugged.

Liadan spotted a familiar bottle, small and ornate, with a tiny cork sitting next to it. She felt a moment of panic and anger. "You've been drinking _membrosia_?" She snatched the bottle from the table. It was almost empty.

"What? No way. That's bug juice? Oh cripes."

"Vector?" Liadan called. She looked over at him, but he was already approaching. Then she glared at Kaliyo. "That was not yours to take."

Kaliyo scowled. "How was I supposed to know? I just grabbed a bottle. I just thought-"

"Well, you thought wrong."

Vector was at her side, gazing with curiosity at Temple. "Ensign," he said. Then again louder. "Ensign." Finally, "Raina." She looked up.

"Well damn," Kaliyo said. She had come over to Temple's chair too. The whites of Ensign Temple's eyes were bloodshot, but that was not surprising. What made Liadan catch her breath was that Temple's irises had gone completely black.

Temple was squirming in her chair, suddenly uncomfortable with all the attention. She tried to look away.

"Hold still for a minute," Liadan said. Vector took Temple's head in his hands and turned her back towards him. Still he said nothing.

"Damn it," Kaliyo said. "One is enough on this ship. We don't need a buggirl too."

"Shut up," Liadan told her. Kaliyo's expression turned sulky and she abruptly left down the adjacent hallway. Liadan turned to Vector. "Membrosia shouldn't be enough, though, right? Could it really…?"

Vector looked thoughtful. "It shouldn't, no," he said. "Temple must be unusually susceptible."

"Will she be all right?"

"We think so. It should wear off."

Temple was looking at Vector strangely. Liadan was well aware that Temple was uncomfortable with Vector and tended to avoid him. Vector stepped back and nodded to Liadan. "Perhaps she should sleep in the med bay tonight."

"I agree," Liadan said. In the med bay Lokin could keep an eye on her.

"Come, Raina," Vector said. Temple swiveled unsteadily in her chair. "You," she said pointing at Vector. "You are…Vector. No. That's not right. You are…Dawn Herald."

Liadan cocked an eyebrow at Vector. He looked unperturbed. "That's correct," he told her gently. He took her by the arm and helped her to her feet.

"Let's take you to the med bay," Liadan said.

Vector guided Temple into the med bay, and Liadan helped her into the cot. She took a blanket from a shelf and draped it over her.

"Get some sleep."

"Ok," Temple said. "Sleep. Ok." She blinked once and then closed her eyes.

Liadan left the med bay and stopped outside to rub her forehead.

"We think she'll be fine," Vector said. "It takes greater exposure and for a longer time than that to make a Joiner."

"That's good. I'm still mad at Kaliyo though. That was your gift…"

Vector smiled. "We can get you more," he said.


	10. Chapter 10

Vector stood with Dr. Lokin among the trees, next to the high metal walls of the Project Protean headquarters. The building was much more formidable than Vector had expected it to be, and that gave him a sense of unease. In the faint light of dusk the vines climbing the walls looked like long, gnarled fingers attempting to squeeze the life out of the building. Fitting, Vector thought, that such a terrible place had attracted the parasitic vines to it. Down the hill nearby was the main entrance, but it appeared long unused. The dirt approach was choked with weeds and the enormous door, large enough to drive a small transport ship through, had tufts of grass growing along its edge. The effect was misleading however, for the building was very much in use.

Vector hadn't wanted to leave Liadan's side before they'd barely had the chance to enjoy their victory on Belsavis, but once Dr. Lokin had found the location of Project Protean, he had been eager to make the next move. Liadan had wanted to come, but Dr. Lokin had spent many years as an agent in his own right, and he had too much of a personal stake in this mission. He wanted to lead a small team of two and Liadan had acquiesced.

Vector heard a rustling behind him and turned to see Lokin stripping off his clothes. He handed them to Vector and Vector swung a bag off his shoulder and stuffed them inside. Everyone on the ship knew that Dr. Lokin had infected himself with the rakghoul plague, somehow finding a way to control - and even reverse - the transformation at will. Vector had only seen the man in rakghoul form once, and he knew enough to not want to be nearby when it happened.

"You still want to trot right through the main entrance?" Lokin asked. "Because you can come in my way, you know." Lokin nodded at the ventilation pipe a short ways above their heads.

"We need to at least try it this way," Vector said. "Maybe they will cooperate."

"All right then. I'll be along to join you shortly." Lokin tossed the last of his clothes in the bag at Vector's feet. Then he climbed the side of the wall with the speed and agility of a much younger man. He disappeared over a ledge and then reappeared again, further up the wall. Vector watched him slip into the pipe's dark maw and vanish.

Vector picked his way through the trees down the side of the hill. Around him strange insects hidden among the branches sung in unison. Their song was unfamiliar to him, but if he listened carefully he could almost find meaning in it. He stepped into the clearing in front of the door and stopped. The door ahead dwarfed him. On either side were two huge turrets. Lokin had assured him that they would not fire automatically. Vector hoped that Lokin's research could be trusted.

Vector took a few steps closer. There was a loud mechanical bang as a switch was tripped and two blinding floodlights came on, turning the night to day in an instant. Vector threw an arm over his eyes and stumbled backwards at the sudden brightness, which sliced through his head like a blade. Somewhere, he knew, there would be an alarm sounding.

"Identify yourself," a flat, inflectionless voice said; the voice of a droid.

Vector lowered his arm. "Vector Hyllus," he called out. There was a long silence during which he contemplated the array of spots floating across his vision. The night insects had gone silent.

A grating noise like gears turning came from somewhere ahead and Vector looked up, suddenly fearful that those turrets were being pointed at him, but they were motionless. There was an ear-splitting screech and the enormous door shuddered and slowly began to rise. The entry beyond was dark and filled with even darker shadows. A burst of cool air ruffled his clothes. The place reminded Vector of a cave. Or maybe a tomb.

When the door finally reached its peak, several more rows of lights came on inside in succession, gradually illuminating a long, stark hallway that lead faintly downwards. Vector stepped inside.

There was no one there to greet him, not even the droid, and Vector's footsteps echoed bleakly against the metal walls. He took comfort from the fact that he was not truly alone here and that he had his staff's reassuring weight at his back. They would not find him defenseless if it came to that.

At the end of the hall, when he at last reached it, was another door. This one had a blinking red light over it and a keypad in the wall. As Vector walked closer, the light turned green and the door slid open of its own accord.

A man in a lab coat was there, pulling a keycard out of a slot in the wall. Vector stepped inside and the man backed away slightly, as if eager to keep a certain distance between them.

"Vector!" he said cheerfully. He obviously knew of Vector, although Vector knew nothing of him. "This is…well, unexpected! Did you come alone?"

"Yes," Vector said.

The man gestured to Vector's staff. "Is that, ah, is that a weapon there?"

"It is."

"Well, I will have to ask you to give it to me," the man said. He began rapidly tapping the keycard against a fingernail, but then caught himself and stopped.

"No," Vector said. "We will keep it with us, thank you."

The man stared at Vector a moment, seemingly at a loss.

"I see…well, then….I will take you to the director." He turned and Vector followed.

They entered a huge room, filled with computer terminals with a surprising number of people attending them. The electro-magnetic energy in the air was almost paralyzing in its intensity and Vector briefly halted in his tracks. He touched a hand to his temple, feeling dizzy. The feeling passed and he shut out the distraction with some effort. He was aware of a large number of eyes following him as he continued across the room. He doubted many test subjects came here willingly, and especially not by announcing themselves at the front door. The watching scientists were eerily quiet.

At last, he reached the far end of the room. The man led him up a short flight of stairs and stopped in front of a door. He hit an intercom in the wall.

"He's here, Doctor."

There was a _click_ and the door slid open. The man stood aside to let Vector pass. He looked relieved to be rid of him.

Vector walked into the room and the door shut behind him, locking audibly. Vector felt a trickle of fear at the base of his spine, but he quickly suppressed it. He would face whatever was here and would not leave without getting the answers he sought.

A woman was waiting for him. She wore a white lab coat and had long silver hair, which she kept swept back from her head and braided down her back. A kind face, slight build, and cheerful blue eyes made her look wholly unintimidating and harmless. Vector knew better, however. There was a room adjacent to this one, hidden from his sight, where Vector could smell the cloying scent of terror and despair.

"So," the director said and her voice was strangely high and bright, like the voice of a child. "Let's be frank with each other, shall we? You're not here for a social visit." She leaned against the table in front of her and smiled sweetly at him.

"We are here for our file," Vector said.

"Are the Killiks asking for this, or is that request from you, Vector Hyllus?"

"The Killiks did not send us."

"I see," she said. She looked at a holoscreen built into the table in front of her and ran her finger quickly across it, flipping through some files and pausing to examine them intermittently. "We thought you were dead, you know," she said conversationally. "You just disappeared from the Oroboro nest - disappeared, in fact, from Alderaan altogether. How interesting that you seem to have taken up with Dr. Lokin." She looked up and smiled at Vector, and something about that smile chilled him. "Yes, I know you came here with Dr. Lokin." Vector said nothing.

"Did he tell you about his involvement with this project?"

"We know of it," Vector said.

"No, I don't think you do," she replied. Her voice was still cheerful, almost giddy.

"We're not here to discuss Dr. Lokin," Vector said. She would try to introduce doubt and mistrust now, Vector knew. He had the sinking feeling that Dr. Lokin had been right. This was not a person who would ever cooperate with him. "We will take our file now."

The director frowned and studied him thoughtfully.

"What do you expect to gain by coming here? You don't really think you can just walk in, take our records and leave, do you?" There was no malice in her tone now, but the mirth was gone as well. She seemed genuinely puzzled. Vector suspected that the director didn't see him as a person at all, but rather as a study gone awry. Suddenly he felt certain that she would do anything to keep him from leaving this place.

"We are no longer your test subject," Vector said. "We will stop any experiments on Killiks or Joiners as well."

"You were always so naïve, Vector. Your pretty ideals don't belong here. You come here, thinking to, what? Stop the project with just you and your staff? You are a diplomat, not a hero."

"We are not who we once were," Vector said quietly.

"Our work here could save the Empire. Surely you still understand that much. Sometimes a few must be sacrificed to help the many."

"What you've done has gone far beyond allowable sacrifices," Vector said. "This place is a horror. The pain you've inflicted here lingers still and it sickens us."

The director grew quiet. "We could help you, Vector," she said at last. "Work with us, and maybe we could reverse what was done to you."

She was getting desperate now, Vector thought, and her switch in tactics was misguided. She didn't understand what she'd done to him at all, did she?

"That is not what we want," he said. He decided to attempt one last plea for logic, even though he knew it would be futile. "Your study is no secret to us anymore and cannot now proceed as planned. Knowledge of what you have done is already known to the Hive. Talks for a Killik-Empire alliance are underway. Do you wish to jeopardize that? Make an enemy of the Killiks and you have done anything _but_ help the Empire."

The director's face had become a mask and she no longer appeared to be listening. She took a step back from the table and as she did so, Vector saw her fingers linger for a moment beneath it. Immediately, Vector felt a prickle against his consciousness and then in a flash of recognition he knew there was an aura of another being nearby.

Vector drew his staff and spun around just in time. A figure materialized before his eyes as the cloaking screen dropped, and Vector blocked a blade that was already en route towards his vital organs, knocking it out of the would-be assassin's hand. It slid across the floor and hit a nearby wall. The man quickly swapped in an off-hand blade and made a stab for him again. Vector swiveled out of reach and brought his staff around in a sweeping arc, hitting the man squarely on the temple. The man crumpled to the ground and did not move again.

Vector looked up and saw that the director now had a gun pointed at him. She looked startled and afraid, and the gun shook noticeably in her hands. Before Vector had time to react, the barrel lit up in a brilliant flash. There was a hiss as a small hole opened up in the wall behind him and began to smoke. Vector leapt onto the table and lunged for her, just as she raised the gun to fire again.

Suddenly, a grid panel flew off from the ceiling and crashed to the floor, followed by a white blur dropping onto the director's head. She was flattened to the ground in an instant. Something wet splattered across Vector's face and when he went to wipe it away his hand came away red. Vector blinked away the blood and saw a large rakghoul hunched over the director, snarling and digging at her with its claws. It made hideous slurping sounds in between growls.

He tried not to look at the rakghoul – he couldn't think of it as Dr. Lokin just now – which was quickly turning the woman into something gruesome and unrecognizable. The scent of gore was impossible to avoid however. It triggered some primal survival instinct in him - whether human or Killik he didn't know – making his muscles taught and his senses keen. The room took on a surreal quality; the lights unnaturally bright, the sounds uncomfortably loud in his ears. He felt vaguely dizzy. Distantly, he was aware of shouting beyond the locked door. He knew instinctively that he would fight to the death anything that came through that door.

With deliberate care, he swung his staff onto his back and turned away. He took his steps carefully, so as to not to slip on the wet floor. A short ways away, he spotted the director's lanyard with a key card hanging from it. Vector retrieved it, wiped it quickly on his coat, and then went to the nearest data terminal and slipped it in the slot.

The screen informed him that he was about to access confidential files and asked him if he wanted to encrypt this session. He told it "yes" and proceeded to run a search on his name, along with the words "Joiner" and "Killik." A mere second went by and the machine displayed a number of records. There were more than he was expecting and he stared at the list for a moment. He selected a file named "Subject: Vector Hyllus" and opened it.

His picture came up – he recognized it as his Diplomatic Service photo ID shot – along with a bio that included his medical and educational history, his professional connections and accomplishments, and most interesting of all, a psychological assessment. Apparently, he was "ideally suited" as a test subject for their Joiner experiment. His file was linked to a number of other records, such as one on Killik history, Killik physiology, a study on mind-control (he was no longer surprised to see this), and some kind of lab report on pheromones. At the bottom was some correspondence between the Science Bureau and various other government departments. Many were holorecordings which he didn't have time to watch now, but they came with written abstracts. One was from the Director of the Diplomatic Service authorizing Vector's assignment transfer to the Oroboro nest. Also there was a request for records from the Science Bureau to the Intelligence Department. Interestingly, the Minister of Intelligence had denied the request, responding that they had no records to send. It seemed he had indeed truly disappeared when he had joined Cipher Nine.

His file ended abruptly. The last entry was a calendar detailing various milestones in his history as a test subject. It ended with the chilling note, "Commencement of in-house testing." The date listed for this was only days after he had left Alderaan with Liadan. If he had not been transferred to Intelligence, he would have come here instead – and probably would have never come out again.

He had no desire to read any more. He copied the files and saved them, however. At some point he would sit down and examine them more thoroughly. When the copy was complete, he deleted everything. He watched the file names flash across the screen as they were deleted, and only closed out the session when he was sure he had eliminated them all.

There was a noticeable silence behind him and Vector turned to see the rakghoul staring at him with its yellow eyes. Nothing human looked back at him from that gaze. If the Dr. Lokin he knew was in there, there was no sign of him now.

Without warning, the creature hunched over and made a strange yowling noise. The edges of its form grew blurry, as if Vector was seeing the rakghoul under a pool of water. A faint glow surrounded it, gradually becoming brighter as the creature's shape grew more indistinct. At last, the shape of a man appeared. It coalesced before Vector's eyes, finally solidifying into a naked Dr. Lokin.

Dr. Lokin stood up and stretched. "Ah, give me a moment," he said. He smiled disarmingly at Vector. Then he looked around as if seeing the room for the first time.

"Well!" he said jovially, "seems things got a bit messy." He padded lightly over to the pack containing his clothes and began to pull things out.

"We are going to look around further," Vector said. He had finally noticed the open door leading to the room he had sensed earlier. He felt drawn to investigate, even though he suspected he would find nothing pleasant there.

The doorway led to a hall with smooth, curving walls. It turned abruptly, and then headed downward. Vector followed it. It emptied out into a room filled with cells. Most of them were empty, but a few were not. Vector sensed no life here.

He walked slowly down the row of cells. The subjects here were predominantly the least-humanoid types of aliens. None of them looked like they'd been dead for long. Vector stopped abruptly. One of the cells held a Killik.

He found the wall panel and hit the switch to turn off the energy field around the cell. The walls flickered and then disappeared. Vector hesitated but then forced himself to step inside. Something felt terribly wrong here and he was filled with unease. Gingerly, he turned the Killik - a female - on her side. She was dead, but he could find no sign of injury on her. He stood up and surveyed the cell carefully. He sensed nothing.

For a moment he was baffled, but then he realized that the "nothing" he sensed was in itself the problem. There was no scent here at all. It was like she had been stripped of all pheromones, even the ones that should have been present in death. Suddenly he was more afraid than he had ever been since coming to this place. In essence her very identity had been taken from her. The horror he felt was akin to finding a person whose face had been replaced with blank nothingness. He backed away quickly.

There was no need to take the body and return her to one of the nests. The Killiks would not even recognize her as one of their own now. She was a non-entity.

He left the cell block and returned to the director's office. The sight of the director's mutilated body sickened him. Dr. Lokin was poking about at the various terminals. Vector noticed that he'd acquired the director's gun.

"All the test subjects are dead aren't they?" Lokin asked. "I can see the order here. The director had them killed as soon as she sighted us coming."

"We want to leave this place now," Vector said.

"Very well, my friend," Lokin replied. "Time to take care of loose ends."

Lokin went to the director's desk and ran his hand underneath it. He tapped a button he found there and the door unlocked and slid open. What noise there had been in the room outside suddenly hushed. Vector followed Dr. Lokin out and onto the landing. The scientists were now gathered in a huddle on the far side of the room. The one who had escorted Vector inside rushed forward and ran past them into the room behind.

He was silent a moment and then Vector heard retching sounds. The man stumbled out of the room, still gagging and wiping his chin. He looked at Vector and Lokin and then skittered down the steps away from them, wobbling like a drunken man. He ran back to the group of scientists. They began muttering and exclaiming loudly.

"Listen up!" Dr. Lokin called out. They quieted. "Come closer…that's it…come on now….there." Once the scientists were all gathered around, Lokin smiled as a father might to his children.

"All right then!" he said. "I am Dr. Lokin. Some of you may already know me." He held out his hands and smiled. "I will be your new director. All current projects are to cease immediately until further notice and you will all be receiving new assignments. In the meantime, you may each write up a report of what you were working on and its current status. Any questions?"

The murmuring had stopped and now there was silence. A woman stepped out of the crowd and cried, "What have you done with the director?"

"The director and I could not come to an agreement. She is no longer with us."

"You…you killed her! You can't do that!" the woman said.

"I can and I did. If you are not going to work with me then you are part of the problem." Dr. Lokin pulled out the gun he'd stashed in his pocket and pointed it at the woman. There was a frightened murmur from the gathered scientists.

Vector held a hand out to Lokin and stepped forward. "The experiments your director was conducting were unethical," he said to the gathered scientists. "She is dead because she tried to kill us – both of us. You can redeem yourselves now by working with Dr. Lokin instead. You will be treated fairly and there will be no more violence."

The woman held up her hands and backed away into the crowd again.

"Much better," Lokin said. "You've all had enough excitement for one day, so I'll be going now. I will be in touch." He nodded to Vector and walked down the stairs. Vector followed while the gathered crowd watched them walk from one end of the room to the other. Before reaching the door, Lokin turned and faced the group of scientists.

"One more thing," he added. "Please have that office cleaned up before I return."

oo0oo

Ensign Temple had the ship waiting in orbit and was ready to pick them up as soon as she received their holocall. Even still, by the time they returned, it was very late. Vector showered and put on comfortable lounging clothes, but even though he was tired, he could not sleep. He let his mind float through the endless ebbs and flows of the Hive, but instead of calming him, it seemed just a cacophony of meaningless sound. He was restless.

After some while, he rose and wandered to the bridge of the ship. He gazed out at the blackness of space, punctuated with so many distant suns. Slowly, he became aware of the soft touch of Liadan's aura nearby. Her bedroom was close to the bridge, and he had passed it to come here. The feel of its energy was docile and quiet; its song a gentle hum. It prickled against his skin, light as a feather, lapping at the edges of his consciousness like a calm sea. Yes, he thought, this is what he sought.

He stood outside Liadan's door and paused. She had given him the passcode to her room some time ago, and he had committed it to memory. But he had never used it. It was late and the feel of her aura told him she was asleep. He contemplated whether or not he should wake her. The sweet lure of her aura decided him. He punched in the passcode and her door slid open with a whisper. He stepped inside and it closed behind him.

He was enveloped in blackness. He welcomed that bit of sensory deprivation however. Without visual distractions he was able to fully immerse himself in the swirl of energy around him and drink it in to its fullest. He stepped forward cautiously. Liadan's aura glowed like a gentle beacon, showing him where to go.

There was a rustle from the bed. "Vector? Is that you?" Liadan's voice was groggy and rough.

"Yes," he said. He came and sat at edge of the bed next to her.

"I'm glad you're back," she said. She sat up and reached for him, her hand finding his shoulder in the dark. From there, she drew her hand through his hair and he felt a shiver ripple through him. "Did everything go all right?"

"It is taken care of now," Vector told her. "But we shall let Dr. Lokin tell you about it tomorrow."

She was quiet a moment. "How about you? Are you ok?"

He started to answer her but then stopped. No, he wasn't ok, he thought, but he would be in time. Right now he wanted to leave his thoughts behind to be sorted through later. Liadan's aura called to him, and he wanted to answer that call. Now that she was awake, the energy around her was awakening too. It danced about her, and where her aura overlapped with his the energy mingled in fascinating, unpredictable ways. He felt it like a caress against his skin, and he could almost hear it too, like two melodies playing against each other, not quite clashing, but not achieving unison either. A little closer perhaps and they would meld together in harmony. He cupped her cheek in the dark, then found her lips and kissed her.

"We…" he paused, "we need…this." He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to kiss her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I understand," she said against his ear.


	11. Chapter 11

Vector reached over to discretely squeeze Liadan's hand. It was a surprisingly human-like gesture and Liadan was touched. "We can feel your nervousness," he said. "We will be nearby." He nodded to her and walked casually away.

The Kaas City Greenhouse Gardens were a popular tourist attraction with their plethora of exotic plants and flowers, and a holosimulation that expertly mimicked a sunny daytime sky. Liadan would have enjoyed coming here for an afternoon with Vector if it weren't for the fact that she was not here as a tourist, but rather to meet someone. She walked the meandering stone pathways, her eyes searching through the foliage for a familiar figure. At last she saw who she had come to meet: a tall, stoic Zabrak woman standing stiffly among pots of delicate flowers. Even though she was dressed in fashionable human attire, her severe facial tattoos and deep red skin would forever set her apart from the norm here. As Liadan approached the woman turned in her direction.

"Dani," her mother said, and she leaned in to give Liadan a quick kiss on the cheek. "It's been a long time."

"My job keeps me busy," Liadan said. It had indeed been almost a year since Liadan had seen either of her parents. "Are you enjoying your visit?"

"Your cousin's been in and out of the med unit since having the baby, but she's doing much better now. The boy's a strong one – at least five horn nubs are showing already. You should visit you know. They've been asking about you."

"The less I am seen around my family, the better. You know that's the way it has to be."

"So you say, so you say," her mother said. Liadan knew what was coming next. Their arguments were nothing if not predictable. "When are you going to get a transfer out of there?" The strain in her mother's voice made it obvious that they'd had this argument before. "You could join one of the military branches. Have your dangerous, meaningful job and still get public credit for it."

"And be just like Claudia, you mean?" It was a low blow, but it fell out of Liadan's mouth before she could stop it.

Her mother grimaced at Liadan's mention of her deceased sister, but otherwise showed no indication that the comment had moved her. "I gave her the same advice and she took it. You choose to be stubborn. Have you even gotten a promotion yet?"

"I did, Mom. I'm a Cipher now."

Her mother sighed. "So you're even more invisible now than you were before. How are you supposed to make a name for yourself if you don't even get to _have_ a name?"

Somehow, Liadan always ended up on the defensive in these conversations, no matter how much she could anticipate their decline. Inevitably, her arguments sounded weak and poorly constructed compared to her mother's. "I may not be earning medals, but what I do… it's important, it…matters." She knew she sounded naive and unrealistic. She hoped it wasn't true.

"They don't have respect for you there. Didn't you tell me that your superior called you 'nothing more than a sanitation worker'?"

"It wasn't- you're taking it out of context."

"You have a responsibility, Dani, not only to yourself, but to your family, to your clan, to all of the Zabrak. They will never have any respect for us if they don't know what we can do."

It always came down to this; Liadan's obligation to her family and her race. Liadan was done arguing. An awkward silence stretched out between them.

"Are you seeing anyone?" her mother asked. It was supposed to be a call for a truce, a way to change the subject to something more pleasant, but Liadan knew that this conversational path was also going to be fraught with difficulties. She thought about lying, but it felt cowardly, and unfair to Vector, who had come here to support her.

"I am, actually. He's another agent." Liadan didn't say anything more. Her mother noticed her reticence and pounced on it, though, just like Liadan suspected she would.

"You going to tell me more about him? Does he come from a good family? Is he a Zabrak? Is he a human?"

"He's…he's human, well, part-human really." Her mother kept looking at her expectantly and Liadan sighed. The fact that he was human would not concern her mother, Liadan knew. If anything, her mother might think of it as a move that would increase her social status. Liadan and her sister had both been given human names for that very reason. But how to explain the rest? She took a breath and described, as non-judgmentally as possible, what it meant to be a Joiner. Her mother listened without comment until she finished.

"Well," she said finally, "what does his family think of this?"

"They…he doesn't see his family much." Liadan realized with shame that she actually had no idea of what Vector's relationship with his family might be like. He had rarely spoken of them. She suspected the Joining had something to do with it.

"I see," her mother replied. She was quiet for a time, but Liadan could sense her disapproval in the tight set of her mouth and the way she looked away as if gathering her thoughts for an assault.

"Liadan," she said. An admonition was imminent, particularly when her mother dropped her nickname. "I hope you are thinking carefully about your life. Your job, your choice of partner…Can you ever be a priority in this man's life? He has divided loyalties. I think what you are not telling me is that his family has rejected him. Is that what you've come to? You are just as good as any of them! You don't have to settle for less."

"That's…" Liadan was stunned and hurt. Is that what her mother thought of her? "You've gone too far Mom. I'm leaving now. We have nothing more to discuss." Liadan turned and started to walk away.

"Dani," her mother called. "I just want what is best for you."

Liadan didn't have to walk far before she found Vector. Wordlessly, he offered her his arm and they began to walk towards the exit. Liadan knew that he could sense her distress. It was a comfort. They had taken a circular path, and now Liadan could see her mother coming up the other side, also walking towards the door. Vector stopped and gave her mother a brief nod and bow. She glanced at him, gave him her own curt nod, and preceded them out the door.

oo0oo

They went afterwards to the same cantina in Kass City where they had gone after their first date at the theater, all those months ago. Liadan was trying to pace herself over her drink. It was only midafternoon and she was already thinking of ordering another.

Vector had wisely chosen to take the lead in conversation, letting Liadan keep to her own thoughts about the unsuccessful visit with her mother. Liadan hadn't had a chance to discuss with Lokin his and Vector's recent infiltration of the Project Protean headquarters, so Vector filled her in on the details. When he told her about finding the dead Killik who had been experimented on, Liadan heard a note of apprehension in his voice that she knew hid a much deeper fear.

"Did Lokin say anything about what he plans to do with Protean's research now?"

"No," Vector said. "But we deleted all the files on Killiks just in case."

"Good. I will speak to him about it. He benefitted greatly from this mission and I doubt that was a coincidence." Lokin was too clever by half, Liadan mused. He would bear watching.

There was a brief lull in the conversation while a band set up on a stage and began playing a jaunty, upbeat melody that was at odds with the subdued mood at their table. "You've never told us about your sister," Vector said.

Liadan played with her napkin, not looking Vector in the eyes. She had known that this question would come eventually.

"Her name was Claudia." Liadan was surprised to hear her voice still sounded steady and sure. "She was in the Special Forces Unit. She was smart, accomplished, really athletic." Liadan paused, finding an unexpected smile lighting her face for a moment. "She busted this guy up once just for making some joke about her horns. Was the talk of the academy."

Vector nodded, listening attentively. Liadan took a sip of her drink to fortify herself and continued. "I idolized her. Then I hated her. Sometimes, it seemed like she was everything I was not. She was loud and confident, she was tall and muscular, she was brave….everyone noticed her."

Liadan sat back and gave Vector a sardonic smile. "I'm…well, look at me. You know me. I'm short, I'm quiet, I'm the one always in the background." Liadan shrugged.

"We like you that way," Vector said. "And you are a better agent because of it."

"Well, I know those aren't bad qualities, but they were obviously different from my sister. And Claudia is the one who always got all the attention, all the praise…the boys too." She smiled ruefully.

"Really?" Vector raised an eyebrow. "We've seen you discomfit many a man when you want to."

"Well, I did manage to make one unusual conquest once…" Liadan laughed and then hesitated, wondering if she say any more. She wanted to keep the mood from getting out of her control, maybe break up the tale of her sister's death into smaller, emotional chunks that were easier to deal with. "I seduced this guy on a dare while I was a first year at the academy. He was a real tight-wad, older than me, class valedictorian, in the officer's program. Handsome as all get-out. And he distained aliens. An impossible catch, right? Don't ask me how I did it. In the library too."

"We are not surprised to hear it."

Liadan laughed, then grew serious again.

"Anyway, my sister was supposed to get a promotion. I…try to forget the details honestly. Then she died in a speeder accident. I mean, just a meaningless, stupid accident. And that's it." Liadan shrugged, then looked up.

"We're sorry," Vector said. "Sudden tragedies can be the most difficult."

"My mother didn't handle it well. Practically went mad with grief. She said some really horrible, hurtful things during that time. I know she didn't mean it but…" Liadan breathed out slowly. "So, my father, well, he had his hands full making the arrangements and all that. That was six years ago now."

They were silent a moment, Liadan lost in her thoughts.

"We're sorry the talk with your mother didn't go well today."

"What should I have expected? Same old, same old." Liadan downed the last of her drink and resisted the urge to hail a service droid. "You've never told me anything about your family, Vector."

Vector nodded, accepting the change in subject. "We are an only child. Our…" Vector paused, and blinked. "…My…parents were older when we were born. We have not seen them since the Joining."

"Do they know what happened?" Liadan found herself rather bothered by the thought of Vector's parents wondering about the fate of their only son. Did they consider him as good as dead?

"The Diplomatic Service briefed them, we are sure. At the time, we thought it was sufficient." Vector spoke slowly, as if only considering the meaning behind his words for the first time.

"Maybe you should try reaching out to them."

Vector looked hesitant, and Liadan wondered if something kept him from wanting to contact them or if it had never occurred to him to do so at all. "We will think on that. Perhaps we will, someday."


	12. Chapter 12

Hunter was growing bold and desperate. He had threatened to blow her cover should she keep pursuing him and he had made good on his promise. Two assassination attempts had been made on Liadan's life in recent weeks, all by enemies who had tracked her down after being given tips on her whereabouts and identity. Hunter had always played a dangerous game, but this had tested Liadan's limits like no other assignment ever had. A few informants working with Intelligence had been needlessly interrogated due to Liadan's growing paranoia, and she had once even pulled her knife on Kaliyo after being startled. She feared her control was unraveling.

Even the innermost circle of Imperial Intelligence was not immune to Hunter's machinations. Liadan worked hard tracking down a series of encrypted recordings, a stunning find which would blow open the Star Cabal's network. Back at headquarters, Intelligence's best Watchers, a new crop of trainees genetically engineered to near perfection, analyzed the recording. It was damaged in places, but the Watchers painstakingly spliced the workable pieces together, revealing a meeting that had taken place between the Star Cabal members. They were able to gather names - real names at last! – giving them their first real breakthrough in months. The Star Cabal was clever though, deviously so, and they had also embedded some kind of corruption into their transmission. Running the holo damaged the brain waves of all the genetically modified Watchers present. Laidan watched in horror as half-way through the playback, almost all the Watchers, Keeper included, fell unconscious around the terminal. Only her, Vector, and one natural-born Watcher were left unscathed.

With so many Watchers in a comatose state, Liadan and her crew now were operating virtually helmless, tracking down leads left behind from data found among Keeper's files, and doing their best to interpret her sometimes cryptic notes. At the same time, Vector was making significant progress towards the Killik-Imperial alliance, but this meant that he was frequently absent, and unable to accompany Liadan on several missions while on the planet Voss. Liadan sent him off with genuine enthusiasm, yet she felt the loss of his presence keenly and was left feeling more cautious and exposed facing the unknown without him.

Her paranoia, she discovered one day, extended even so far as to her own ship. Liadan was bent over her desk, reading over some of Keeper's notes, when she realized that she hadn't eaten anything in hours. She wandered into the kitchen, writing the details of her next report to Intelligence in her head. She was so preoccupied that she didn't even notice at first that the other crew members had gone out some time ago, leaving her alone.

Liadan made herself a sandwich, and then decided kick back in her captain's chair and eat it on the bridge. She paused as she passed by her bedroom door, however, startled to hear a faint, unfamiliar voice speaking from inside. No one had the passcode to her room except Vector and the ship droid. She pushed open the door quickly and stepped inside, all senses on alert and her hand on the hilt of her vibroknife.

"…there? Hello?" a voice, definitely feminine, was saying. Liadan spotted Vector's holocommunicator immediately, and sighed inwardly with relief to realize that the voice was coming from the tiny, wavering figure hovering above it. Vector had forgotten it on her desk the night before and now someone was trying to reach him. Liadan recognized the woman immediately, even though she had only seen her once from across a crowded room, many months before. It was Anora, Vector's old girlfriend.

"We can start over," the woman was saying. "You don't really know what you want. You-" she stopped mid-sentence when she spotted Liadan sitting down at the desk. "Who are you? What are you doing in Vector's room?"

Liadan let a smile touch the corners of her lips. "This is my bedroom actually."

Anora looked disgusted, then stricken. Was she still pining over him after all this time?

"You can't be serious," she said.

Liadan felt her ire rising immediately. "You don't think he would be interested in an alien like me?"

"That's not-, Are you taking advantage of him? He's not even capable, he's not…" Anora was so upset, Liadan saw, that for a moment she couldn't find the words. "You're revolting!" she blurted out at last. "He's doesn't even have his own mind anymore."

"I'll be the judge of that."

"Vector's sick and needs help!" Anora cried. The image wavered as the tiny figure balled up her fists in frustration. "He can be restored! He had a life, a career, people who loved him…" Anora's voice broke and she sounded like she was about to cry.

"He still has those things now."

"What have you done with him?" Anora demanded. Liadan was finding that her anger was being replaced by pity. She sighed.

"Nothing. He works for me."

"What are you making him do then?" Anora sounded shrill and the tinny quality of the holocall only amplified it. "He can never love you, you know. He can't care about anyone anymore. You may have found a way to have him in body, but you can never have him in mind. Those…those _bugs_ stole him away, stole the real Vector. All you have is the shell that's been left behind."

"Stop calling, Anora." Liadan was feeling unsettled. The conversation was bothering her more than she expected it would.

"You don't know Vector like I did. We were going to…going to get married." Anora covered her face in her hands and began to sob.

Liadan just wanted this call to end. Anora's pain was real and raw, and she was so clearly heartbroken. "I'm sorry," was all Liadan could think to say.

"Just…just never mind," Anora said. "Forget it." She waved a hand and her image sputtered out. Liadan sat staring at the silent holocom for a long time. She got up finally and walked to the crew quarters, where she quickly left Vector's holocom on his bed, grateful that no one was there to try and talk to her.

oo0oo

Liadan had made considerable sacrifices on behalf of Intelligence. She had lied, seduced, betrayed, and killed, all for the good of the Empire. Now necessity was leading her to carry off a deception that was testing even her moral limits.

"So are you really going to marry a Voss? Then again, we always did question your taste in men." Vector's tone was surprisingly light, even somewhat flirtatious. He had given her his unfailing support and even now, moments away from the ceremony, was trying to ease her misgivings with unexpected humor.

Liadan shrugged and gave him a sidelong glance. "Why? Afraid the pheromones are wearing off?" She nudged him in the ribs, wondering if he was bothered at all by the prospect of her making such a public declaration of commitment to another man. He caught her hand and brought it to his lips, gracing her knuckles with a kiss.

"All we need is our charm."

The Voss were a gentle people, connoisseurs of tea and lovers of art and mysticism, and they preserved an innocence that Liadan had thought long lost to the world by now. Phi-ton was sincere and kind, and didn't deserve to be yoked to an absentee wife who had no intention of upholding her end of the vows. Yet, Liadan needed to get close to this family in order to access the Voss's secrets, secrets which somehow included the Star Cabal.

There was an additional complication. The Voss, Liadan had discovered, had a curious physiology. A marriage rite, fully consummated, was required for them to reach sexual maturity. Phi-ton had explained to her that desire and passion were unknown to him. Liadan had intended to go through with only the minimum elements of the ritual for propriety's sake. As the hours passed and the ceremony drew closer, she became preoccupied by the thought that her actions would be depriving Phi-ton from a living a full adult life, and possibly relegating him to state a perpetual limbo where he was neither child nor man. She knew she would leave him after she had accomplished her mission objective on Voss. She couldn't also curse him to a life devoid of physical pleasure as well.

Before meeting Vector, Liadan would have looked on this sham wedding as a matter of doing what was necessary to get the job done. She wouldn't have spent so much time distracted by the moral implications, not when the greater good was clearly being served. Now she was, selfishly she admitted, more immediately concerned with what Vector thought of the arrangement. She didn't want him hurt, yet she yearned for some sign that he thought of their relationship as exclusive and special.

She turned to Vector, knowing that she had run out of time. Her decision was made.

"Vector," she said. She waited until she had his full attention before continuing. "Stay for the ceremony if you like, but afterwards, you should go back to the ship. Don't wait for me. I won't be back until morning." She searched his face for signs that he understood her meaning.

He nodded, his face impassive. "You will perform the Rite of Ardor?"

"I…I have to."

"We support you in this." He gave her a reassuring smile and then his gaze shifted to look over her shoulder. "Your groom arrives."

Liadan was grateful that Vector understood the sometimes unusual, and intimate, demands that being an agent required. But a part of her was still disappointed at how easily he had dismissed the significance of what she was about to do. Liadan did not have time to dissect her conflicting feelings over Vector's reaction. The ceremony was beginning.

oo0oo

When Liadan got back to the ship the next morning, she found Vector in the common area drinking tea.

"It's done," she said quietly. "I've been given permission to access the archives this afternoon. After that, we'll go to the Nightmare Lands." The Nightmare Lands were a place of superstition and dread among the Voss. No one would take her there, not even Phi-ton. The Star Cabal had something hidden there though, so Liadan didn't plan to let a bit of superstition stop her.

"That is good news," Vector said. Liadan nodded.

"We also have news."

Liadan was surprised at the change in subject. "Go ahead." She grabbed herself a cup and poured herself some tea. She was relieved to see it wasn't Voss tea. She wasn't in the mood for anything Voss at the moment.

"The Empire is ready to sign a treaty with the Killiks."

"Vector, that's great news! Congratulations. All your hard work has paid off."

Liadan could see Vector's smile from behind his tea cup. "It is," he said. He took a sip and then set the cup down, looking serious once more. "But it means that we will have to leave you again for a while."

"I should come with you."

"Diplomatic talks are usually only interesting to other diplomats. The details will take time to negotiate." He paused. "There is one other thing."

Liadan felt a trickle of unease ripple through her, although she couldn't say why.

"The nest has called us to return. We don't know what it is about, but we must travel to Alderaan afterwards."

Liadan felt her hopes sink. "How long will you be gone?"

"We don't know. But we will stay in touch. We want to come with you to the Nightmare Lands if you can grant us this time away first."

"I can hold it off for a while, but…"

"That is all we can ask."

Liadan left the conversation feeling unsettled. Were the Killiks reining him in now that the treaty was all but a given? Perhaps they did not see the need for Vector to travel the galaxy any longer as an agent. And what then?

A short time later, Liadan encased herself within a cloud of steam and tried to ease her troubled thoughts in an extended bout in the shower. She'd finished washing some time ago, but leaving the shower would mean stepping back into the world outside her little watery haven, and she was in no rush to do that. It was a world full of problems: assassins out to kill her, crazy Sith, dangerous Jedi, and galactic conspiracies that threatened to unravel all she'd been taught of history. Then there was her mother and Anora's strange message and Vector…

Liadan had long suspected that Vector did not understand the concept of jealousy, but did he even grasp the significance of her sharing her body with another man? Did he understand exclusivity or feel the same power and intensity behind their lovemaking as she did? She was undeniably under stress, she reminded herself, perhaps she was over thinking things. Still, unbidden, Anora's voice came to her, followed shortly afterwards by her mother's. _He can never love you, you know. All you have is the shell that's been left behind…Can you ever be a priority in this man's life? He has divided loyalties._ They were wrong surely. He was not incapable of love. Yet, she faltered at that thought just the same. Had he abandoned Anora after becoming a Joiner? He had not even contacted his parents. Did he understand these emotional complexities?

There was a pounding on the door that shook her out of her reverie. "Do I need to fish you out of that drain? People are waiting out here!" It was Kaliyo. Liadan sighed and turned off the water.


	13. Chapter 13

A bell sounded throughout the transport ship, and a mechanical voice announced, "_Arriving at Rhu Caenus spaceport in twenty minutes_."

Vector was eager to land on Alderaan, and eager to soak in the peace that the nest inspired. He was also curious as to what the Oroboro queen wanted of him, and, he admitted at last, somewhat nervous as well. He had his own request to ask of her.

The treaty was signed, although it had nearly been derailed by an assassination attempt made by an anti-Killik Imperial diplomat. They'd all been deceived, and no one saw the explosive until it was too late. The Dawn Herald of the Iesei nest had been killed as she tried to shield another from the blast. It had nearly thrown out all the negotiations, but somehow Vector had managed to pull the talks back on track again. He had accomplished a great feat that day and he was pleased to know that he still had his diplomatic skills, especially in the face of such an unexpected tragedy.

Did the Oroboro have another task for him now? He did not want to leave Liadan. They were so close now to their goal of finding and stopping the Star Cabal and she needed him. She needed him. His heart swelled to think of it. He had dared to imagine a different life and now he didn't want to let go of the possibilities that life offered. He would always be a part of the nest, but that didn't stop him from being a part of her world too, did it? He wanted to be there for her, hear her laugh, feel her touch…he breathed deep and sighed. Dare he imagine it? If the queen denied him…he shut that thought out quickly. What would be would be.

oo0oo

Vector lay prostrate on the ground in front of the Oroboro queen and waited. There was nothing to say. His thoughts were open to her and he knew she was sifting through them now; seeing, knowing, considering. The hive did not understand individuality, and his desires were foreign and incomprehensible to them. The queen alone had some grasp of the concept, being an entity that was one with the hive, yet separate at the same time. Vector cleared his mind and laid bare everything. If she didn't understand, then he was out of options. Her judgment was final and he would accept it.

_You are bold to ask this of us, _she said into his mind._ You refuse a great honor. You know this task would benefit all of the Kind and not just the Oroboro._

_Yes, this is true_, he answered silently. It was impossible to deceive her. _Yet I will serve still as I always have if you allow it._

_ Yes, you will. _The queen's words gripped him in their finality. A pause. _We have given you more freedom than most and yet you ask for more._

_ To unite with another is a desire intrinsic to my species. I cannot deny what I am. _Would an appeal to the basics of biology sway her?

_Yes, we do understand this. All creatures share this desire in some form. That you still feel this selfish need is only because I have allowed it to be so._

_I am grateful. _It was a bare whisper in his mind, yet he knew the queen heard it.

_You fear that I will take away what autonomy you possess._

_It is my greatest fear_, Vector admitted.

_You are worth too much to us. I will not make you a drone._

Vector felt relief flood through him.

_You have shown us many interesting things, Dawn Herald. You have orchestrated this alliance with the people of the Empire. We have learned about strange customs, ideas, things curious, terrible, and wonderful. We want to see more, to know more. You have served beyond expectations. You will always be Dawn Herald to the Oroboro. It is a loss though that you will not be Dawn Herald to all nests._

Vector was silent. He had refused the Killiks' offer to elevate his position as Dawn Herald to include all the nests on Alderaan. He had been flattered, but accepting would have taken him away from his position in Intelligence. It had been a difficult decision nonetheless, and he had considered the offer for days. His place, he decided, was at Liadan's side. He wanted to be with her, share everything with her, weather the good and the bad. He wanted to be with her as long as he lived. Would the nest allow him to declare another loyalty? He knew the queen's judgment was coming soon.

_This love you feel, so intense, yet bound so tightly to just one individual, is strange to us. But perhaps this union you seek will still benefit us in other ways that have yet to be seen. Your desire is strong and genuine. I will give you this gift, because I see it is valuable to you, and you have been valuable to us._

Vector breathed a sigh of relief and sat up slowly. He looked into the queen's dark black eyes.

_Thank you._ The weight of everything he was lay behind those words.

oo0oo

Liadan glanced at the Voss Mystic and the woman nodded, smiling in a way that Liadan decided was supposed to be encouraging.

"Look into the flames and you will see," the mystic said.

The fire in the brazier before her burned a bright, healthy yellow, hissing and lapping at the air, yet it was no natural fire. The interior of the Voss temple remained drafty and cool, with no sign of the heat that a fire of that size should be emitting. Liadan had taken Voss mysticism as a form of primitive superstition, but standing here now, before the strange golden eyes of one of their nameless mystics and staring into these heatless flames, Liadan felt doubt and uneasiness prickling along the back of her neck. Was it some kind of trick? She was beginning to believe that the Voss had access to some unknown form of Force power. She didn't like it.

Nevertheless, she had earned this "blessing" and so she set her palms against the cold stone pedestal and blinked into the flames. They danced and curled hypnotically, but that was all.

"Nope, noth-" she started to say. A force, like an invisible hand, gripped her and yanked her forward, ripping the words out from her throat and leaving her breathless. She was pulled towards the flames, _into_ them even, and then she was spinning, dizzy and weightless, with no idea of where the floor began and the ceiling ended.

She was left standing in a formless, shapeless room, with limbs light as air. She glanced down at her body, half expecting to be naked, only to find herself wearing an unfamiliar yellow dress made of pale, rippling silk. It trembled around her like a living thing, stirred by an invisible wind. She was not alone. A figure coalesced before her, like smoke taking solid form, and gradually Liadan realized that she was standing before an image of herself. The other Liadan was dressed in her usual Imperial issue lightly armored bodysuit, knives sheathed against her thigh and a blaster along her back. Her double smiled at her and then held out her hands.

At first Liadan saw nothing, and then an object took shape in her double's palms, a glowing box that she took at first to be a datacron. She realized that the sides were plain and smooth, however, and she inched forward for a better look.

"What is it?" she asked the figure that was herself.

"What do you want it to be?" The figure smiled coyly and the box began emitting faint wisps of glittered fog.

"I don't know," Liadan answered.

"Well, that's exactly your problem, isn't it?" _Your problem, your problem_ echoed a chorus of invisible voices that came from everywhere at once.

"I don't understand," Liadan said.

A warm breeze grazed the back of her neck and a new voice whispered in her ear, enticing and familiar, yet she couldn't understand the words.

"Vector?" Liadan spun on her heels and found behind her a black, empty void that was altogether too close. Was it her imagination or was it edging closer?

"Take it," the other Liadan said, holding out the box. "It's yours. It has always been yours."

Liadan reached for the box, which was glowing so brightly now that she had to squint just to look at it, but it turned transparent when her hands went to grasp it, and her fingertips passed right through it.

"I…I can't." She tried again, but the box faded even further, and she feared it would disappear completely if she tried again. She pulled her hands away and noticed with horror that they were becoming transparent too.

"What's happening?" She looked to her image for help. The Zabrak simply shook her head sadly and began to back away.

"You will lose yourself altogether if you don't put a stop to it," the figure said. There was a sadness in her voice, but worst of all was the note of fatalistic inevitability, as if her double didn't believe she would succeed.

"What do I need to do?" Liadan cried. "Wait! Come back!"

The other Liadan faded away and she was left alone. She spun about, searching for walls or an exit, but what little light there was around her was rapidly dwindling. Darkness crept forward, entombing her, and Liadan was bathed in a terrible, animalistic fear. She was going to be trapped here, she was going to be eaten alive, _something_ was out there, something-

Liadan awoke with her body lying on the frigid stones, shivering violently. She sat up. The fire in the brazier was out but the mystic was still there, standing with the patience of a statue, watching.

"What does it mean?" Liadan asked. She was surprised to hear her voice sounded hoarse, as if she had just awoken from a long, uninterrupted sleep.

"Your vision was personal to you," the mystic said. "I cannot interpret it."

"Then what good is it?" Liadan snapped. She stumbled to her feet. Her clothes felt sticky and damp, as if she had just woken from a fevered nightmare.

"The value of the vision will come to you in time," the mystic said. Her voice was flat and endlessly patient, but her calmness only incensed Liadan all the more.

"And what if it doesn't? What if I can't figure it out until it's too late?"

"I thought you didn't believe in visions," the mystic replied. Was she smirking?

"Not useless ones, I don't." Liadan spun around and made for the door, her boots clacking loudly against the stone floor. She expected the mystic to stop her, or to try and say something stupidly cryptic or profound, but she said nothing as Liadan left the room. She hurried through the corridors, feeling like she couldn't leave the temple fast enough, and didn't slow her pace until she was well outside and away from the building.


	14. Chapter 14

Vector had been gone for almost a week and Liadan had missed him more than she wanted to admit. A thrill passed through her when she realized that he was back. Liadan turned a corner and found him practicing combat forms. She leaned in the doorway and watched him as he slid gracefully into different moves with the agility of a dancer. He appeared to have been practicing for some time, as his loose shirt was stuck to his body in places from his exertion and his hair swung into his eyes as he moved. The moves looked unfamiliar. Apparently the Killiks had taught him something new during this latest visit.

Liadan suspected that he knew she was there, watching him, but he finished his routine before turning to acknowledge her. He swept a few stray hairs off his forehead and then gave her a short bow.

"Agent," he said, nodding. He looked more focused, she thought, his eyes intent and his movements more confident. He came and stood in front of her. "We were hoping you hadn't gone to the Nightmare Lands yet."

"I haven't."

"Good. We didn't want you to go alone."

"I wouldn't have," Liadan said quickly. "Kaliyo offered to come with me. We could have handled it." Immediately she felt a stab of regret for her words. The openness was gone from Vector's face in an instant, leaving behind a distant, impassive look. Liadan realized she had hurt his feelings.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I…I don't know why I said that. I didn't mean it." What was wrong with her? She hadn't even welcomed him back, or told him how much she had missed him. She was acting childish. She rubbed her forehead and studied the floor for inspiration. "Of course I want you with me."

"Is everything all right?" Vector asked. "Your aura shifts and tumbles around you. You are not at peace."

"I've just...got a lot on my mind I guess. I never even asked you how your trip went." Liadan had heard from Vector over holocall and knew about the nearly disastrous treaty attack, and had congratulated on him already on his successful negotiation of it, but what she really wanted to know was what had happened on Alderaan.

"We did some negotiating with the nest," Vector said. "We are happy with the outcome. We do not expect to be called back to Alderaan for some time."

Now it was Vector's turn to be evasive. Liadan nodded, wondering if she had put him out of the mood for sharing. "Well, that's good then. I'll let you get cleaned up." He nodded and she stepped back out of the doorway to let him pass.

oo0oo

The discord in Liadan's song was worrisome. Vector knew that they were all under increasing stress lately. Liadan was holding up well, but cracks were beginning to show in her confidence. The Nightmare Lands had been a trial for even the strongest mind. The very land itself was in pain, the trees twisted and blighted, the animals mutated and vicious. Several times Vector had been certain he had seen something move very close to him, just on the peripheral of his vision, but when he had turned there was nothing to be seen. Once he had been sure that Liadan had spoken to him, but when he asked her to repeat what she had said, she looked at him strangely and told him she hadn't been talking at all. He knew the place had spooked her too. She had been on edge and her scent was rife with nervousness and mistrust the entire time they had been there.

Vector also knew that Liadan had had misgivings about the deception she was forced to carry out on Phi-ton. Even after leaving Voss however, Liadan often preferred to sleep alone rather than ask for his company. At first he had been concerned that Phi-ton had hurt her somehow. The Voss were taller and larger than most humanoids they had encountered in the galaxy, and they were an unfamiliar species with mostly undocumented customs and rituals. Had there been more to their mating ritual than he had first realized? Had being intimate with Phi-ton injured her somehow?

He had even resorted to researching the holonet for information on Voss physiology and marriage customs just in case there was something he had missed in his assessment. He found a rash of very recent scholarly papers on the Voss, but most of them dealt with their relationship with the force, or analyzed their political affiliations and temperament. When he finally did find some illustrations of Voss anatomy he confirmed that they had slightly larger proportions overall, but nothing alarming. Their courtship and mating customs still followed patterns common to many cultures throughout the galaxy.

When he next researched the Zabrak, he got caught up in descriptions of various tribal customs and the complex meanings behind their many tattoos. It was overwhelming and he quickly became distracted reading about the differences between Iridonian customs and those of off-world Zabrak. He set down the holopad and rubbed his eyes. This was getting him nowhere. Perhaps he was going about this all wrong.

"Hey." Kaliyo sauntered into the room, looking like she had just gotten out of bed, even though it was mid-afternoon. She sprawled out on a couch nearby and kicked her heels up onto the table in front of them both. Her toe stretched out and tapped Vector's holopad sitting on the table.

"Now Vector," she said, her voice suddenly full of amusement, "there is much better porn on the holonet than _that_. Is that the best you could find?" She cocked an eyebrow at him and a smug smile played across her face. Vector leaned forward and snatched the holopad from the table, noticing with regret that he had left an illustration up on the screen of two Zabrak engaged in some ancient Iridonian sex ritual.

"We're sure you are the expert in such matters," he said. He felt an unwelcome heat coming into his cheeks.

"Things been rocky with you two? You seem to be spending a lot of nights in your own bunk lately."

"We didn't know you were one to give out relationship advice, Kaliyo."

"Well, your girlfriend did recently marry another man." Kaliyo snorted with what was probably a laugh and shook her head. "Poor sod. That Voss guy was clueless, huh? I wonder if Cipher's had an attack of conscience."

"You have noticed her acting differently too?" Vector had not intended to engage Kaliyo in this type of conversation, but her comment had piqued his interest.

"Yeah, well, I have to announce myself when coming into the room for fear of getting accidentally stabbed now. I'd say that's different."

"Do you think it has to do with something that happened on Voss?"

Kaliyo slid her feet off the table with a thump and leaned forward. She studied him for a moment as if considering whether or not to say what was really on her mind. "Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask, yes, and then we will decide if we will answer."

"Are your bugs friends monogamous?"

"Members are faithful to the nest," Vector said simply. "There is no need for restricting relations between individual members. When the nest needs to grow it does so in the most efficient way possible."

"You recall that humans and many other species don't normally think that way though, right?"

"Their biological needs are different, of course. Social requirements lead to a need to define lineages, which support the family model."

Kaliyo stared at him. "You're lost on this concept, aren't you?"

"We don't understand what you mean."

Kaliyo sighed and looked to the ceiling as if hoping to find guidance there. "When it comes to Cipher, you need to think like a human again. No buggy stuff." She made a noise of frustration. "Ugh. I'm the last person who should be giving lessons on monogamy."

"You are talking about Cipher's marriage to Phi-ton? We know it was for necessity, not love."

"Let me put it this way. Most guys would rage like a rancor if their one-and-only slept with another person."

"Being an agent calls for a wide range of methods to get the job done. We understand this."

"Yeah, but doesn't the thought bother you at all?"

"Why?" Vector asked. He was getting more confused by the minute. "We know her heart, her intentions, her feelings. That is what matters."

"You're a rare creature, Vector," Kaliyo said. "If you weren't half bug, I might find your attitude on 'sharing' perfect for a freedom-loving gal like me." She chuckled.

"You think Cipher wants us to be jealous?"

"Nah, I think she knows you better than that. I doubt she would share _you_ as easily though. She might be feeling like she's been unfaithful in some way. Maybe you should just ask her." Kaliyo stretched and yawned. "Enough of this, I need a drink." She lurched to her feet and wandered into the kitchen.

Vector sat thinking about all Kaliyo had said. It would be just like Liadan to unconsciously put herself through some kind of punishment for her perceived transgression against him. He would have find out what was bothering her and draw it out somehow.

He went to put away his holopad and saw that there was a message on it. He had no messages saved, and this one was not new, so that meant that someone had viewed it. Perplexed, he ran the recording.

It was Anora. This was the second time she had contacted him in recent months. He had ignored her first call, but maybe he would have to do something about this one. He quickly realized as he watched the message that Anora was talking to someone else, someone who had been present during the call. Vector could only hear one half of the message, it but was obvious that Liadan had to have been the other missing conversant. Vector watched the message in full and then deleted it. He wondered why Liadan had never mentioned having spoken to Anora. Another piece in the mystery.


	15. Chapter 15

They'd been called back to Dromund Kaas immediately. Liadan knew the moment she set foot in headquarters that something was very wrong. Posts were unstaffed, computer screens were black and empty, and an air of hushed tension hung like a pall over the room. Liadan walked past a row of now silent terminals and was met with a startling sight. Watcher Three, sweet, eager-to-please Watcher Three, was dangling helplessly in the air in front of a hulking Sith lord. The watcher was grabbing uselessly at his throat, his face already a lurid shade of purple. Liadan didn't have time to think. Watcher Three's eyes were rolling back into head.

"Hey!" she cried. "What's going on here? Put Watcher Three down!"

The Sith released his hand and Watcher Three fell to the ground, gasping. When the Sith turned around, Liadan saw that he was a Kaleesh, with long tusks protruding from underneath a fierce skull mask. He set a pair of bright yellow eyes on her and Liadan felt a brief moment of dread, wondering if she had overstepped.

"The Cipher agent," he said. He sounded more intrigued than angry. "You defeated the traitor Jadus and those fools in the SIS. My Masters acknowledge your service. But you serve Intelligence no longer. By Order of the Dark Council, Operations Division is now dissolved. You have been reassigned to my brigade on the Corellian front lines."

"What? I don't-"

The Sith's comm unit went off and the Kaleesh turned his back on her to answer it. An Imperial solder appeared on the holo. "The agent's ship is secure, Lord Razer," he said. "And we found the Ratattaki outside a cantina. She's coming in now."

Liadan turned at the sound of footsteps and saw Kaliyo being lead into the room by another trooper.

"What's the deal?" Kaliyo was hollering. "Let go of me!"

"The rest of your crew will remain under your command," Lord Razer said, "but this alien is a traitor and an anarchist. She will be interrogated and judged."

"I will kill you all!" Kaliyo screamed. "Agent, don't let them do this!"

This was all happening too fast. Liadan stepped forward and met Kaliyo eye to eye. "Go with them for now," she said, her voice low. "We are outnumbered here." Would they ever be able to sort out this mess? What did he mean, Intelligence was _dissolved_?

"When I get outta here you are all going _down_!" Kaliyo shouted as they led her away. Liadan watched her go, wondering if she would ever see Kaliyo again. Kaliyo was strong, but Imperial interrogation techniques were designed to break hardened soldiers and trained spies. Liadan blocked out the thought. She had to focus on the here and now.

"You've been assigned the rank of Lieutenant," Lord Razer said to her. "Report to Captain Trage once you arrive at the spaceport on Corellia." He spun on his heel, waved a hand to the soldiers at his command and swept from the room. When they were alone, Liadan went to Watcher Three and helped him to his feet.

"I'm sorry, sir," he said. The effort of speaking brought on a fit of wheezing and he bent over to catch his breath. After gasping and swallowing a few times, he straightened back up. "Thank you for saving my life."

"I'm glad I arrived when I did."

"Agent, Lord Razer said something before you arrived…something about the Minister of Intelligence requesting this position for you specifically. We may not be an official arm of the government anymore, but I think he was directing you to this brigade for a reason. If you need anything from me, just ask."

"Thank you Watcher Three," Liadan said. "Listen…there is a bed aboard my ship if want it. We'd be happy to have you working with us."

Watcher Three rubbed the back of his neck and gave her a shy smile. "Thank you agent, but I'm not field trained. I'll find something here, and with any luck it'll be a nice, boring desk job." He smiled weakly.

"Well, if you ever change your mind…"

"Thank you, sir."

Liadan had done all she could. She went back to the ship, her heart heavy and her mind reeling.

oo0oo

"We keep going like we always have." Liadan sat at the conference table on her ship and studied the faces of her crew. "We will not give up on finding the Star Cabal. They are orchestrating this war with the goal of destroying both sides. If the Minister wanted us assigned to Corellia, the answers we seek must be there."

"We'll do whatever we can, sir." Ensign Temple sat primly on the edge of her seat, looking serious and wide-eyed.

"Good. You're all dismissed."

Everyone filed out of the room except for Dr. Lokin. He waited until they were alone before speaking.

"Agent," he said. "I have a confession of sorts."

Could she handle any more surprises? Every one of Liadan's limbs felt heavy and overburdened. "What is it, doctor?"

"Last week I discovered a slew of suspicious outgoing transmissions. They had all been deliberately tampered with to hide the sender and the contents. Not our standard encryption technology, mind you. It was more like a messy slicer's attempt. This had been going on for months."

A dull ache was settling behind Liadan's eyes. "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"

"I had my doubts and didn't want to make any accusations until I knew more. So I sent a few copies to headquarters to be analyzed."

"You notified headquarters without telling me first? This is about Kaliyo, isn't it? That's why they were waiting with a prison squad when we arrived."

"I believe so."

Liadan pinched the bridge of her nose. "Doctor, you acted without consulting me. I would have liked to have had a warning when the transmissions were discovered and then _I_ am the one to decide how we would have proceeded next."

"I regret that I didn't inform you, but what's done is done." Lokin's voice held the same mild-mannered tone as always. He could have been the discussing Kaas City Opera and not the betrayal of one of her long-standing crew members. Had she ever trusted Kaliyo? She felt foolish for even thinking that they could have gotten along.

"How much have we been compromised?"

"That remains to be seen. What I saw did not appear to impact any of our current missions."

"We can hope then."

oo0oo

A brilliant flash filled Vector's vision with sparks of light, and the force of the blast threw both him and Liadan into the air, knocking out Liadan's stealth generator in the process. Vector landed hard on his side. They were visible now, and with his eyes still blinded, vulnerable too. Vector leapt to his feet, his senses screaming of danger. He scented ozone on the wind and spun his staff into position in front of him, just as a burst of electricity arced towards him. The staff only blocked the main brunt of the blow, leaving the remaining tendrils of electricity to sizzle across knuckles, burning him and shocking him into temporary paralysis. He stumbled to the ground, noting with relief that he had heard the buzz of Liadan's shield being deployed just in time, leaving her unharmed. He found his feet and looked up to see an enormous demolition droid crawling towards them on three spindly legs.

While most of their missions involved infiltration of some kind, being a part of Lord Razer's battalion meant that they were on the front lines of the fighting more than ever before. Even taking the proper precautions, it was impossible to avoid skirmishes with the local resistance forces on the ground. They were finding this out the hard way.

Vector launched himself at the droid, taking the offensive and jamming the end of his staff deep into the droid's circuitry. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Liadan taking the flank, both her knives drawn and a look of vengeance etched across her face. The initial element of surprise had given the droid the advantage, however, and up close Vector could hear the mechanical humming of another attack readying for launch. The droid's body swiveled unexpectedly, pointing its blaster arms at Liadan. Vector heard the discharge of laser bolts like a hammering in his ears. He had no time to feel panic or fear. That other part of him had taken over, the part that was cold, efficient and inhuman; the part of him that relied on the extrasensory enhancements the Killiks had given him.

He slid low to the ground and swept his staff hard just above the dirt, aiming for the joints in the droids legs. The initial strike landed solidly, and Vector heard a satisfying snap as the front leg joint bent backwards and broke. The droid leaned precariously for a moment, but then adjusted itself in compensation for the injury. He saw Liadan on the other side of the droid now, alive and bouncing on the balls of her feet, moving with the unnatural quickness of Imperial evasion technology. She gritted her teeth and thrust the end of her vibroblade deep into the droid's motor sensors. They sparked out and the droid came to a halt, rocking for a moment on its two unbalanced legs. Vector slammed his staff into the droid's center of gravity, and it toppled over, creaking and groaning as the metal chassis bent. Liadan slid the end of her knife into a crack between rivets that had opened up in the droid's side. Vector heard a loud electrical zap and the droid ceased moving altogether.

Liadan stared at the droid for a moment, a snarl on her lips and her shoulders heaving for breath. When she raised her head and her eyes met his, they were a brilliant, angry yellow. At that moment, Vector decided that he had never loved her more. All the delicate diplomats he'd hobnobbed with, the gentlemen in their silken capes and the women with their brightly painted faces, were nothing in comparison to the striking, primal beauty of Liadan's ferocious determination.

"Let's go," she said.

The street smoked and burned around them, and they had to tread carefully to avoid craters that had broken up the pavement. Liadan was on high alert, her gaze sweeping both alternately ahead and behind them, but the noise of gun fights and aerial explosions made it difficult to hear quieter enemies approaching. It was Vector who heard the footsteps of a manned patrol about to emerge from behind a broken stone wall.

He had only a moment's notice to act, so he grabbed Liadan around the waist and pulled her against him as he stepped backwards into the cockpit of an overturned taxi. He held her tightly as the patrol passed, six armed troopers, some with assault cannons. He remained still even after they had long gone.

"Thank you," Liadan said quietly. Beneath the palm of his hand, Vector could feel the rapid thrumming of her two hearts. He bent and touched his lips to her ear.

"We've missed this." He tightened his arms around her briefly for emphasis. "And this." His mouth slid from her ear to her neck, planting a fervent kiss there.

"So have I." Her hand covered his and briefly stroked his fingers. "I know we haven't had much time together lately. Come to my room tonight and I'll make amends." From his position behind her, he could just see the curl of her smile.

"Gladly," he whispered.

oo0oo

"What happened between you and Anora?" Liadan slipped in the question between gentle caresses of her fingertips along Vector's back. His eyelashes fluttered briefly against the pillow and then slid closed again.

"We broke up about a few months before we left to become emissary to the Oroboro."

"You did?" Liadan paused a moment to digest that before continuing with the massage. "Why?"

"We were apart from her more often than not. We were frequently called away for diplomatic missions, sometimes lasting weeks at a time. It was strain on us both."

"She called for you a few weeks ago."

"We know. You spoke with her, didn't you?" Vector's eyes opened and he rolled over, forcing Liadan to adjust from straddling his back to straddling his waist. She met his eyes reluctantly.

"I did. Did your comm unit record the whole thing?"

Vector smiled and reached up to run his hand along her cheek. "It did. Or her part of the conversation anyway."

"She seems to have forgotten that you two weren't compatible even before the Joining then. She has decided that the Joining is all that is keeping you from getting back together."

"Did talking to her upset you?"

Liadan shrugged. "I thought…I thought that maybe you had been still in love with her when you Joined. And that you simply forgot about her afterwards. I could only imagine how that would have made her feel."

Vector looked surprised. "You felt sympathy for Anora?"

"To be forgotten like that? Who wouldn't?"

"But, Liadan," he said, "that's not what happened. She ended it two months before we were Joined."

Liadan looked away, suddenly very interested in a wayward thread on the coverlet. "You're right. I'm sorry. I guess I just…just got afraid."

"We don't understand."

Liadan studied his face, noticing the little frown lines around the corner of his mouth and the set of his eyebrows as they tilted inward. "I love you, Vector," she said. The crease along his brow relaxed and he smiled. She took a breath. "Will you always love me? Could the colony take that away from us somehow, or from you?" There, she had said it. That was the heart of it, wasn't?

Vector sat up, cradling her in his lap as he did so. "You have awoken the human part of us, and shown us that it has always been there. The Killiks could not take it away. It was just…hidden from us for a time. The Killiks don't understand our love for you exactly, but they see it and they know it's real." He looked away for a moment, and then when he turned back to her again, Liadan sensed that something had been decided.

"The colony offered to make us Dawn Herald of all nests," Vector said. "That is why we were called back to the hive."

Liadan felt her stomach seize up. "And?"

"We spoke with the queen and turned down the offer. We will remain Dawn Herald of the Oroboro, but our place is at your side."

"You said that to her?" Liadan felt her vision wavering with unshed tears. "And she agreed?"

"She agreed. Liadan," Vector said, cupping her chin in his hand, "we know we sometimes don't remember the intricacies of relationships. But we will always be willing to learn, if you will be patient enough to teach us."

"Always," Liadan answered.

"We can sense when something is wrong. Please talk to us when you are upset. We cannot read your thoughts, however much we would like to."

"I never thought that I might be upsetting you by keeping silent." A tight, almost bitter laugh escaped her. "Sometimes I'm not sure what it is that is bothering me either."

"Like with what happened on Voss?"

Liadan paused at that. "I gave my body to another man."

"We were worried about you. We worried that you had gotten hurt somehow."

"Oh, Vector." She smiled. "No, it's just that I don't ever want to do that again. You are the only man I want." She took his head in her hands and kissed him. "What we have is special. At least, it feels special to me." Left hanging in the air was an unspoken question.

"We are used to the idea of sharing, but we did not mean to make you feel any less special," Vector said. His voice dropped lower, leaving a shivery trail down Liadan's spine. "We have never had anything like this."

"I want to be yours and yours alone."

"You already are," Vector said. "Just as we are yours. Just as," he paused and appeared to be reaching for a difficult word, "_I_…am yours. With everything that I am."

He kissed her and then rolled over, gently guiding her onto the bed underneath him.

"Are you going to claim me as yours now?" There was a twinkle in her eye and a mischievous smile on her lips.

"Yes," he said, easing between her legs. "We will help you forget every other man that ever was."

"You already have."


	16. Chapter 16

"Respectfully, agent, this sounds like suicide." Lokin looked at her from across the conference table, his arms folded and his face deceptively calm.

"I can hold up to their torture," Liadan answered. "It's the only way to plant the false information about our troop movements. Do you have a better idea, Dr. Lokin?"

"Have them intercept a planted transmission with the data instead."

"They have a slicer of uncommon skill in their ranks, probably Hunter himself. That would never stand up to his scrutiny. He remotely broke into the databanks at Intelligence Headquarters, remember, in order to retrieve my keyword, and no one was the wiser. I have to deliver this information in person, so Hunter can see that it comes from me directly."

"This is turning into a personal vendetta between you and that man," Lokin said. "That is a dangerous way to operate."

"It wasn't Cipher's idea," Vector said. All the heads at the table turned to look at him. Liadan nodded for him to continue. "These were instructions straight from Keeper herself. Would you counsel Cipher to go against her directives?"

"Two weeks ago Keeper was in a coma," Lokin said. "The other watchers still are. How do you know that it wasn't the Star Cabal who implanted this idea into her brain to begin with?"

That idea hadn't occurred to her, Liadan reluctantly admitted. It was just like Lokin to come up with the most paranoid explanation for recent events. It still felt like a stretch.

"The Minister of Intelligence assigned me to Lord Razer, placing me in just the right position to continue what we started here. The Minister knows her instructions. They might even be coming from him. I'm just going to have to trust that."

Lokin shook his head and let out a breath. "Very well, then. Let yourself get captured and tortured by the Star Cabal. I hope they act on your false data."

Liadan gave a curt nod, signaling that the discussion was finished. "That's all then." Liadan's eye met Vector's as her crew stood and began moving away from the table. He nodded to her. He knew this was not something she wanted to do. He understood though that this job required sacrifice, discipline and courage. She would need all of those things to see this latest plan through.

oo0oo

A smoky haze colored the sky in unnatural shades of orange and pink while explosions shuddered through the air like distant thunder. Through the hotel's balcony door Vector could see Liadan gazing out at the horizon, her body silhouetted against the darkening sky. She'd been there for some time, still and thoughtful. Vector looked down at the small wooden box in his hands. Under the lid, nestled in a bed of white silk, lay an ulikuo gemstone, its glittering facets catching the faint light and throwing it back with a delicate glow.

Vector had been carrying this stone now for several weeks, intending to offer it to Liadan when the moment was right. Tomorrow Liadan planned to give herself over to the Star Cabal. Vector believed in Liadan, knew her strength and resilience, yet he was not so naïve as to think that she was infallible. Liadan could be torn from his life tomorrow, or she could return to him lost and broken. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly. The thought filled him with a deep and terrible ache, yet there was no question that she would face this challenge as she had every other before it, and he would support her.

He wanted her to know, before she left him to enter the arms of the enemy, that they were bonded forever in heart and body and mind. He wanted to send her off with a token of his love that was greater than just a farewell gift, and more lasting than a fleeting kiss. Reaching back into his consciousness, he shut down the link between himself and the hive, and was left with a feeling of acute loneliness and loss. The world was duller this way, and it reminded him of looking through a window misted with dew. It was important, however, that he show Liadan that it was his own desire that spurred him, that it was he, Vector the man, who wanted her and who she would be joining her life with.

He stepped forward, reaching the threshold of the doorway. A breeze tousled Liadan's hair and she reached up to subdue it. Vector hesitated, seized with a sudden doubt. Would she think his proposal was rushed, coming as it was the night before her departure? Would she think that he doubted her or that he didn't believe she would return alive? She didn't need anything that would shake her confidence now. He needed her to believe that she would make it out safely; needed her to believe that _he_ was counting on that likelihood.

He didn't have a speech prepared, he realized. He hadn't planned this moment at all. Was it desperation and fear that drove him? He was acting with too much haste. He needed time to think. Closing the box, he turned away and stepped back through the doorway into the darkness of the room beyond.

oo0oo

The wind carried with it the scents of burning fuel and acrid smoke, curling around her as a constant reminder that this glorious sunset was no natural beauty but was born of strife and pain. Liadan leaned on the balcony railing and looked down. Far, far below, soldiers gave their lives and civilians slinked about in fear, as the normal, everyday sounds of life were drowned out by mortar fire and air defense missiles. The scene was at odds with the serene opulence of the hotel where Liadan and Vector were staying. The war had crippled business, and a room which would have once cost a full month's pay for many was now less than half that price. It felt indulgent to leave the ship and stay in a place that had once been a playground for Corellian high society, and it only made her situation feel more surreal than it already was. She was glad to have done it though. She was alone with her thoughts and alone with Vector. She would give her body and mind what peace she could find here, before leaving for the torture that awaited her at the hands of the Star Cabal.

A lull in the wind allowed her to catch the faintest rustle from behind. Liadan turned and saw Vector swiveling at the balcony threshold to step back into the hotel room as if he had come to join her but had abruptly changed his mind. There was something furtive in his movements, a hurried sense of indecision perhaps. She wondered if he was afraid to bother her.

"Vector," she said. "Wait."

He stopped and hesitated before slowly turning back to face her. He was not meeting her eye. His hands closed around something, a small square object of some kind, as if he were trying to hide it. He sighed, sounding resigned, and stepped out onto the balcony.

"What is it?" It was not like him to act so unsure and hesitant.

"Liadan," he said and he raised his head to meet her gaze. She found herself looking into a pair of pale green eyes.

"Hey." She reached out to lay a hand against his shoulder. "Is everything all right?"

"I…I wasn't sure if this was the right time," he started. "I have…" he looked down at his hands, "I have a gift for you."

"You do?" She couldn't help but smile and that seemed to relax him a little.

A box appeared within his enclosed hands and he held it out to her. "It's an ulikuo gemstone once owned by the Tapani noble houses. It took some brokering and persuasion to acquire it, and then I wanted to give it to you at the right moment. It's…" he paused to take a breath and look away for a fleeting moment, "it's a gift that traditionally accompanies a marriage proposal, which is…which is what this is."

Those green eyes were staring back at her, honest and intent, and Liadan felt momentarily tongue-tied. "I could want nothing more than to share my life with you, Vector," she said at last. "I will gladly marry you."

A relieved, almost boyish smile played across his features. "Open the box," he urged.

She carefully pried open the lid. Inside, a clear, teardrop-shaped gemstone winked back at her. "It's perfect."

"You can have it set however you want-a ring, a necklace, your choice. I only wish that you could wear it right now."

"Yes," Liadan said, "so I could have it with me tomorrow." Liadan regretted her words as soon as she'd said them. A shadow flitted across Vector's face, and as much as he tried to hide it, Liadan could see the lingering sadness behind his gentle smile. He moved close and encircled his arms about her waist, slowly touching his forehead to hers.

"I love you," he whispered.

Liadan closed her eyes and tried to hold onto the feel of this moment, to etch it perfectly and securely in her mind. The heat of his body against hers, the gentle pressure of their heads touching, his hand as it wove up and down her back in slow spirals…yes, she wanted to remember this forever. She felt him tilt his head and brush his lips against hers. All thoughts, all self-control evaporated, and her body melded against his. She yielded to the kiss, feeling an inner fire awakening deep within her loins.

"Come to the bed," she murmured against his skin. She felt rather than heard his sigh of agreement against the hollow of her neck. "I would have you as you are, Vector." He pulled back slightly and her eyes caught his. "You don't have to be unjoined for this."

A smile touched the corner of his lips and he nodded, stepping back a moment to gather his focus. Liadan watched as he bowed his head and closed his eyes. She heard a faint release of breath, and then he looked up at her, his eyes black and fathomless once again. She led him back inside, taking care to place the treasured box on a nightstand.

Vector pulled her close and breathed deep, weaving his hand into her hair and leaving a trail of kisses along her neck. "We love to experience you this way," he said. "We can know you more completely." Liadan fumbled with his clothes, pulling the shirt off his shoulders with such haste that one of the seams tore. He laughed against her ear and shook the rest of the shirt off, letting it drop to the floor, instantly forgotten. The rest of their clothes soon followed, and Liadan touched her hands to his chest to guide him backwards towards the bed. He slid onto the mattress and Liadan covered his body with hers, settling a leg on either side of him and leaning close as she kissed him. Beneath her palm, she felt his heartbeat pick up speed, and a low, urgent sound escaped his lips. Warm hands caressed her back and thighs, slid around her hips, and then wandered further until she whimpered with longing at his touch. "We can taste you on the air," Vector said, his words coming out in a hurried jumble, "sharp and sweet." He lifted his head to claim her mouth, but broke away with a gasp when she sheathed him fully inside her.

Had she ever thought to find such love that it filled her with an ache almost like pain? Desire she knew, passion, the triumph of a conquest, yes, but these things had often been in the course of her job as an agent. She had begun to think that love was a transient, fleeting thing, not meant to last or to be truly hers. Now, here in this bed, on this foreign war-torn planet, she found a kind of joy and ecstasy that she had never thought to claim. That anyone could love so much, that they could share this together, was a fervent dream. Even now, with Vector's body full inside her, it felt unreal. Would it be ripped away from her tomorrow? She wanted Vector there, filling that void, his love a barrier against the evils of the world.

She sat up, her head falling back as a climax overtook her, rippling across her body and curling her toes. Vector watched her, the sheets bunching in between his fingers, his breath coming in short gasps. He shuddered beneath her then, his eyelids sliding closed and a moan coming low from his throat. Liadan caressed the planes of his chest, his skin warm and damp beneath her fingertips. When at last they settled against each other, her body nestled in the crook of Vector's arm, Liadan slipped into a deep sleep, her whole being lost in the heavy, languid balm of deep fulfillment.


	17. Chapter 17

Pain.

Liadan's vision was awash with red. She had to remind herself every so often to breathe.

Those who had not known torture always thought of it as an attack on the body, but really it was an attack on the mind. Surviving torture was not about resisting it. No, it was about riding the pain like a wave, embracing it even, taking it in and then pushing it back out again. It took great mental control to keep the body open and the mind closed, because once that madness reached beyond a person's inner defenses, it would burrow into the deepest recesses and was that much harder to root out again.

Liadan had forgotten just how varied pain could be. One word did not encompass all the facets of pain, not by far. Liadan had trained for this at the academy and had an advantage already in the strength of her species, which was known for having a higher pain threshold than humans. She stilled her mind and pulled all her resources inward, recalling all she had been taught, but by the stars it wasn't enough. She could handle what she thought of as a "clean" pain, the kind that had a single source and focus. No matter how sharp, no matter how strong, she could push that kind of pain through her and out the other side, let it pour over her and run off like rainwater. She could endure.

This, this was not a clean pain. It was a sickening pain that came unpredictably and from multiple sources at once. It reached into her gut with a grip like steel and clenched it tight, squeezing and churning and threatening to tear her mind and body apart. She had lost track of the hours by now and she was tiring. There was a darkness now creeping into the edges of her vision, and her ears chimed like a never-ending bell. If she gave in too early, her prepared confession might not be accepted, but she didn't know how much longer she could last.

She had meant to go alone, but Vector had insisted on accompanying her as far as he dared. They both assumed that nothing untoward could happen in a public space. They had been wrong. Vector had been knocked unconscious by the same nerve gas that had been intended to trap Liadan, and when she had awoken, tied to a chair in a stark room, she found that Vector had been tied in one of the room's dark corners, awake and very much aware.

They were going to make him watch.

Liadan had felt a moment of panic upon realizing this. Vector had no experience or training in dealing with torture, and she didn't know if something so violent would be even more overwhelming for a mind that was already hyper-sensitive to stimulation. She was far more afraid for his sake than she was for her own. They could hurt Vector without laying a hand on him. Her hatred would know no bounds if that happened.

The room lurched as Liadan slumped forward in her chair. The bindings on her hands pulled her arms back painfully, although they kept her from falling to the floor. Her mouth was dry and her skin was sheened with sweat. She cracked open one eye just in time to see a dark spot of blood drip into her lap. The sight caused her nausea to sprout full flower. She gagged once and then emptied the last of her stomach contents onto the floor.

From far away her ears grabbed hold of the one familiar voice that could reach her in this nightmare. "Hold on agent," Vector called. His voice sounded hoarse and strained. "Someone will come soon."

"Shut up, freak," said another voice. Liadan heard a sickening thud, followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. Vector fell silent.

Would someone come soon? Had they been abandoned here? Liadan wanted to believe, but in the depths of her torment she knew only despair. They might very well die here.

Every agent was schooled in dealing with capture. They were taught how to withstand torture, and they were also taught when it was time to surrender. Surrender meant death. Protection of the Empire's secrets was paramount; there were no exceptions. Every agent carried a tiny capsule hidden somewhere on their body and inserted directly under the skin. If the circumstances demanded it, they were to break open the contents and let the poison do its work. They were assured that it worked quickly and painlessly, but of course there was no one alive to confirm this.

Liadan had known when accepting this assignment that death was a real likelihood. She would rather die at her own hand than at the hand of these animals. However, if help did not come soon, she might not last long enough to even get to make the decision. Trussed up in the chair, her strength spent and her mind wavering on the border of madness, she wondered if her body would finally succumb to death without need of the capsule. Liadan sat in that stifling room, lost in the haze of pain, as the weight of that thought settled over her like a blanket.

She had known the life of an agent would be a thankless one. She knew it would demand sacrifices. She had in fact, accepted it so completely that she had not even given it that much consideration. Liadan believed, unerringly, that this was her duty and her calling, and she had never thought to question it. Now that she was faced with the ultimate sacrifice, she looked death square in the face and wondered, _would her death matter_?

Liadan's thoughts swirled in a vortex of confusion. She was far away, lost to the world, not even hearing the taunts of her abusers, and momentarily numb to all pain. She had not come all this way, she realized, scrambling over every barrier and roadblock, just to die at the hands of the Star Cabal. She would never be famous or heralded for her deeds like her mother wanted. But her actions had far reaching consequences and she affected the lives of so many people, all the ordinary humans and the downtrodden aliens and most especially the Zabrak. She lived to protect the Empire's citizens from the chaos and corruption of the encroaching Republic and from the destructive machinations of the Sith. She couldn't do all that if she were dead.

Liadan's thoughts moved now at the most basic, most instinctual level. A fierce desire to live, to to exist, to _be_, surged through her. She felt her unconsciousness unfurling outward again like the stretch of new wings, and a renewed determination coursed through her like fire.

It was time to play her last card.

"I'll talk," she gasped.

"What did you say?" a voice growled behind her. "I can't understand a word you are mumbling."

"I'm ready," she took a ragged breath, "…to talk."

The pain stopped. The absence of pain was a glorious pleasure. Liadan reveled in the sensation, marveling at it like one newly born, and for a brief moment, she couldn't remember what she was supposed to say. Then the words she had practiced came back to her. She told them about the false plans. Gave them believable details. She finished and waited.

A prod appeared unexpectedly and stabbed her in the ribs, shooting a bolt of electricity that made her entire body spasm. Liadan couldn't even catch her breath to scream.

oo0oo

Vector awoke with his head throbbing. He lay still a moment, assessing the state of his injuries. He gingerly touched his head and winced when he found a large lump there. His hair was crusted with blood. That appeared to be his only wound – or at least the only physical one. The trauma of what he had seen would stay with him a long time.

Killiks had been tortured by both the Republic and the Empire at times, and he had known this in the way that every Joiner knows a memory. But he had not _seen_. He had not _heard_. The sounds of Liadan's torturers hurting her had been an assault on his ears, and the smell of her blood and sweat and fear had smothered him. There were times, towards the end, when he sent his mind to seek refuge with the hive. He felt some degree of shame over this, as if sharing in Liadan's torment was somehow required of him as a penance for his own body being spared. He had felt the hive's concern and confusion. _The memory is ours now. It is no longer your sole burden_, their voices told him. But it was still a living memory and Vector could not rightfully release it. He had resurfaced once more to the horrors that awaited him.

_Liadan._ He reached out now and felt her aura nearby, but it was so faint, and her song was rife with discord. Slowly, he opened his eyes and tried to roll over onto his side. His stomach lurched and he had to stop and take a few slow breaths to calm it. He had to get a hold of himself.

He found Liadan lying nearby. She was a crumpled tangle of bloody limbs and he almost wouldn't have recognized her, if he hadn't known. He reached out all of his senses towards her and felt the slow, tentative pulse of blood working through her veins. Her breathing was strained and her aura was dim and sickly. He was afraid to move her, but they had to get to safety.

They had been dropped in Axial Park. Vector sensed no other life around. He patted Liadan's pockets gently, but the holocommunicator was gone. He would have to do this alone. He reached into one of his own pockets and pulled out a tiny vial of membrosia. It wasn't kolto, but it would have to suffice. He gently lifted Liadan's head and tried to rouse her, but hearing her name did nothing to bring her back, not even when he pleaded and called her "Liadan." He popped the lid on the membrosia and tucked the vial into the corner of her mouth. He stroked her throat with a finger, trying to induce her to swallow, as he poured the contents of the vial down her throat. She sputtered and gurgled, but the membrosia didn't come back up, so Vector assumed he had somehow gotten it into her.

Carefully, he pulled himself to his feet and waited for the ground to stop tilting from under him. Then he lifted Liadan in his arms. He felt unsteady himself and the thought of him falling or dropping her made him place his next steps very carefully. Sheer force of will brought him out of the park and onto the street. It was hardly safe here either, and he stopped to rest. Explosions rocked the ground and parts of the city burned in the distance. He adjusted his grip on his precious cargo and walked on.

Ahead he saw a speeder pad, but as he got closer, his hopes sank. The droid controlling the routes was a smoking ruin, and kept emitting a repetitious series of undecipherable beeps and static. There were two speeders parked there however. One was sparking alarmingly but the other looked merely dented and scratched up. Vector reluctantly set Liadan on the grass nearby went back to examine the second speeder. To his relief, it started up immediately, but his victory was short-lived. He soon realized that it was locked and only set to travel to certain destinations.

Something tickled Vector's cheek and he touched a hand to his face in surprise. His fingers came away wet and sticky with blood. This was not going well.

He was fighting despair when he realized that underneath the blips of static and occasional screeching, the droid was faintly repeating the same phrase over and over. "Select your destination…Taxis are for military…no exceptions…select your destination…"

Vector fished out a credit stick and tapped it against the droid's sensor and the droid's eyes changed from red to green.

"Override code 28B dash 7 dash E6," Vector said. He thanked the stars that in his frequent travels with Liadan he had overhead her use the travel route disable code and had memorized it himself. It worked. He let out a breath.

It took some time to properly arrange Liadan on the seat with him so that he could drive and still carry her. After several awkward false attempts, he finally settled on positioning her facing and in front of him. He tucked her arms and legs around himself the best he could. It was an overly familiar pose for being in public, but under these circumstances, he decided that propriety was the least of their concerns. As he curled one of her arms around his neck, he spoke into her ear, hoping that on some level she could still hear him.

"Hold onto us, Liadan. Hold on." His heart leapt with hope when he felt her tighten her grip slightly. He wasted no more time and sped towards the spaceport where he knew the _Phantom_ would be waiting.

The ride was not a smooth one. The speeder sputtered a few times and once Vector had to nearly slow to a stop because of his own light-headedness. It would not do to get this far only to crash the speeder minutes from their ship. At last, he arrived.

"Dr. Lokin!" he yelled. He knew that even he sounded frantic. "Dr. Lokin!"

"I'm here!" Lokin called, rushing down the entry ramp. "Get her into the med bay."

He barely remembered carrying her inside. Next thing he knew, he was gently setting Liadan on the cot, while Dr. Lokin hurriedly adjusted the settings on the Kolto tank.

"Get her ready," Lokin ordered. "Everything off but the small clothes. Use this if you need to." Lokin tossed him a folded pocket knife. Vector stared at it a moment, but quickly realized what it was for. Liadan's clothes were soaked with blood in places, causing the fabric to stick to her skin. He carefully cut away her shirt and pants, pushing down the feeling of horror that he felt once the true state of her injuries were revealed. The Star Cabal was evil. Hunter was a monster.

Once Liadan was floating serenely in the tank, Dr. Lokin tended to Vector's head wound. Vector sat patiently, silent and lost in his thoughts. He felt numb. And tired. So very tired.

"You should rest now," Dr. Lokin said. Vector looked up and realized that the doctor was standing in front of him, watching him closely. He nodded to Lokin and rose. He had only gone a short ways down the hallway to the crew bunks when Dr. Lokin called him back.

"Cipher gave me some instructions before she left," he said. "She wanted you to have her room while she wasn't using it. I think the privacy and quiet will do you good." Lokin paused and then said quietly, "I believe you have the passcode already."

Vector nodded.

The first thing Vector noticed upon entering Liadan's bedroom was that it smelled of her everywhere. He drank it in and felt both reassured and melancholy. The droid had made the bed as always, but one of Liadan's undershirts was still draped across the back of a chair. Vector picked it up. It was soft from many washings and looked small in his hands. He thought of the last time he had seen her wear it and how she had given him that secretive, alluring smile before slipping it up and over her head. She was a strong person. Perhaps the strongest he knew. He wondered if he had ever told her that.

He dragged himself towards the bed and crawled into it. Out of habit, he chose the side that he usually took when spending nights with her, but today he stopped himself and shifted over to her side. He collapsed on the bed and buried his head in her pillow. Memories of those thugs hurting her intruded upon his mind and he forcibly shook his head to remove them, and the motion gave him a spark of pain and nausea. "No," he said quietly, pushing them away. He descended into the consciousness of the hive and let the waves of foreign thoughts wash away his own. He let them go, picturing himself actually holding the memories in his hand, like hot coals, and then releasing them into the stream of consciousness as it flowed serenely past. They would always be his memories, but the burden of them wouldn't be so unbearable once shared.

Only then did sleep find him.


	18. Chapter 18

Vector slowly became aware of his surroundings. He'd been meditating for a long time and it felt late. He was not the only one awake on the ship anymore, he realized. He could feel Liadan's aura nearby, flickering warmly. Slowly, he unfolded his legs and rose from his bunk. Liadan's aura always distracted him and drew him to her, even when she wasn't trying. He had checked on her daily, knowing that each time he felt her aura brighten, it meant that she had passed another plateau in the healing process. He felt that pull now, especially strong, which encouraged him. Lokin had removed Liadan from the tank earlier that day and had settled her onto the cot in the med bay. Vector had hoped she would awaken immediately, but she did not, and Lokin had advised him to be patient.

He walked through the empty hallways of the ship, unable to hide the eagerness in his step. The med bay door was ajar, and Vector's heart leapt into his chest as he turned the corner. The cot was empty, the rumpled sheets tossed aside. Vector moved towards the front of the ship, where her quarters were. Her door was closed, but not latched. He gently slid it open.

Liadan was standing in the room in front of her mirror, naked. She turned slowly, inspecting what was left of the scars against her skin. Seeing her now, so unguarded and unaware, brought out a surge of protective instinct in him. This was his agent as she really was, with no mask, no pretenses. He quietly closed the door behind him and approached.

She spotted him and paused. "How long was I in the tank?" Her voice sounded hoarse and disused.

"Six days," Vector said. "Dr. Lokin says that you healed twice as fast as any human would." He stopped behind her and placed his hands lightly on her shoulders, then bent to touch his lips to her neck, letting the sweet scent of her flooded his senses. His eyes closed as he breathed her in. "We missed you," he whispered.

There was a bottle in her hand which he recognized as some healing concoction of Dr. Lokin's. "Let us take care of this for you." She released the bottle into his hand, and he opened it to let a small dollop slide into his palm. The stuff smelled woodsy and herbal.

He began to gently and thoroughly smooth the lotion over her body, starting with the scars along her back and working his way down to her thighs and calves. As he spread the lotion over her, her aura flared about him teasingly, swirling in little eddies around his hands. He was fascinated and he slowed his movements, watching the play of her aura as it responded to his touch. He moved around to her front, taking care to work in some lotion along her side, across her stomach, and over her arms. When he finished, he stepped back and looked around, spotting the oversized shirt that she often wore to bed. He handed to her, but could not resist helping her slide it over her head. She smiled at him knowingly, and touched his cheek. "I've missed you too," she said. Her eyes flitted to something behind him. "What's that?"

Vector smiled and stepped aside. The package he'd left on her dresser was wrapped in simple paper and twine. He'd placed it there days ago, knowing that she would find it once Lokin had released her from his care. "A get well gift," he said.

She picked it up, glancing at him questioningly, and then sat on the edge of her bed to open it. Vector sat beside her, watching as she unraveled the twine and tore off the paper. Inside was a large folded square of pale golden Killik silk. She held it up, her eyes widening. "You can have it cut and tailored into clothing if you like, or it can be made into bed sheets." Her head lifted and her eyes caught his at that. A beautiful smile broke across her face.

"Thank you Vector." She threw her arms around him and kissed him.

oo0oo

The aged Zabrak at the tattoo parlor waved them over and Liadan rose, taking Vector's hand and pulling him along behind her. She stepped behind the curtain, quickly undressed and settled herself on the bed. Vector pulled up a stool and sat next to her.

The proprietor looked over his holopad and his wrinkled face registered surprise. "I have not seen this design requested in a very long time." He glanced at Liadan, studying her more carefully. "Very long time. Not many outside of Iridonia deserve to carry this mark anymore." Liadan looked back at him, her gaze calm and unwavering. He nodded to himself. "I can tell, I can see it in your eyes, that you have crossed the fire and emerged reborn."

He began gathering his supplies. Vector squeezed Liadan's hand and smiled.

"This will take many sessions. Are you ready to begin?"

A few weeks later, Liadan turned slowly in front of the mirror. Sharp black lines weaved across both her shoulders and down her arms, almost to the elbow. They continued part-way down her back, forming a simple yet elegant geometric pattern. She had never been one to fuss over tradition - her mother liked to call their family "progressive" – but this tattoo held more personal meaning and pride than any other she had yet received. She had earned this, maybe even more so than the facial tattoo she had received at her _Res Selenoren_ when she was sixteen. Her ordeal with the Star Cabal's torturers had marked her, but she was stronger now than she had ever been. A few of her faint scars had been incorporated into the design and that felt apt; it felt _right_. The Star Cabal could not break her. They had in fact been instrumental in molding her into something even more resilient, helping to transform her body into a work of power and strength and artistry. Her deeds would never be sung before a grateful public, but they were a permanent part of her, etched into her skin as a glorious testament to who she was. That was enough.

oo0oo

The rainforest cabin felt like a remote corner of paradise, making it hard to guess that it was merely an hour's ride from Kaas City. They had invited no guests for this occasion, preferring that their ceremony be a quiet, private affair. Liadan had had the proper paperwork filled out, but instead of sending in it to the Imperial Registry of Birth, Death and Marriage, she had framed it and hung it in the bedroom of her ship. There could be no official record of their union, not when one Liadan Thornbriar was legally deceased.

Hunter had been the last one, outside of her trusted crew, to see her alive. As her long-time enemy lay dying at her feet, the hidden holoprojector around him failed, revealing Hunter's true form – that of a woman. Yet another deception in a long line of deceptions, secrets and lies. The Star Cabal had finally been vanquished, their members either exposed or outright killed, and their millennia of interference over. All their databanks, thousands of years worth of conspiracy fodder, had been contained in something they called the Black Codex, which now belonged to Liadan. Such information could be used to fund any number of activities, and Liadan planned to unofficially carry on the goals of Imperial Intelligence, along with a few of her compatriots: Watcher Three, Keeper and the former Minister of Intelligence. Kaliyo had been freed with the Minister's help, and while their relationship was strained, Kaliyo had asked to stay on board in the hopes of mending any fragile trust she and Liadan had once shared.

This little vacation was well earned. Outside, the rain pelted the jungle, shaking the lush, green fronds outside her window, and dripping in a torrent from the eaves of the cabin. Before Liadan and Vector had left, Kaliyo had made some joke about their choice to hold the ceremony on Dromund Kaas, noting that rainy weddings were a sure sign of fertility to come. Liadan had rolled her eyes and Vector had simply smiled, giving her a surreptitious look from under his lashes.

Liadan fussed nervously with the pendants hanging from her two longest horns, finally sighing and going to fish around next in her suitcase for her shoes. She slipped them on and turned a few times, watching the rippling yellow Killik silk of her dress flare out around her calves. The box with Vector's ulikuo gemstone sat on a table next to the bed. Liadan picked it up and walked over to the mirror against the wall.

She was struck then by the familiar sight of her in a yellow dress, holding a box in her hands. Bumps broke out across the skin of her arms as she recalled the vision she had had on Voss. Here she was now, her vision come alive. Her double in the mirror appeared to be offering her the box. _It's like I'm giving a gift to myself_, she thought. Then, _maybe I am._

How many sacrifices had she made in the name of the Empire? Sacrifices for people she knew, or for people she had never even met? Sacrifices for her family, for her clan, for her race; her every action was to prove herself and to make the Empire a better place. How often had she done something purely for pleasure, something for herself, however? She had often felt guilty for her relationship with Vector, thinking of the danger and vulnerability their love caused, or wondering if she were blind to think such a bond could last in a job as unpredictable as hers. Perhaps it was time to lie that aside and to embrace the one thing she could forever call her own. She pulled the gemstone out of the box, strung now on a fine metal chain, and fastened it around her neck. The Zabrak in the mirror smiled, confident and at peace.

Outside, Liadan sprinted quickly to the nearby cave and stepped carefully through the short, damp tunnel that lead inside. Ahead, a halo of light marked the tunnel's end, where the daylight sparkled through a curtain of water, lighting stray droplets into falling jewels. A thunderous roar marked the presence of the waterfall far below. There, silhouetted in the light, stood Vector, the mist playing around him and shining in his hair. As Liadan approached, he took her hand and kissed it, laughing when Liadan stumbled into a small puddle. The mist was quickly wetting them both, but they stood toe to toe and kissed deep and slow, ignoring the world around them in favor of each other. They had both prepared simple statements testifying to their devotion and they spoke them to each other with no need of witnesses other than nature and the surrounding jungle itself.

"We are one," Vector said at last.

Liadan clasped his hand in hers. "Always and forever."


End file.
